What Would Have Been part 1: The Philosopher's Stone
by MyraValhallah
Summary: After being thrown back in time Hermione Granger changed the future- now a package containing the Harry Potter Books turned up in Hermione Lupin's home. A 'reading the books' story with a unique spin. No flames please.
1. Prologue

_**Author's Note Please Read**_

_**I Know that stories where characters read the books are seriously over done but I'm hoping that you'll go with this story because my characters are already in a changed future.**_

_**I read a lot of time travel fics where Hermione goes back and starts changing the future and I got to wondering what would happen if they read the Harry Potter books after Hermione had changed the future. This was the result.**_

_**This is NOT a romance story but the pairings included are as follows: **__**James/Lily, Frank/Alice Remus/Hermione and Sirius/OC (I ship both 'Remione' and 'Sirimione' but I don't think there are enough of the former)**_

_**But enough of my waffle, enjoy:**_

* * *

_**~Prologue~**_

"Merlin" Hermione Lupin gasped. "This is impossible"

"What's wrong love?" Remus Lupin asked; alarmed by how pale his wife had gone. "Mione, what's the matter?"

"These" she gestured to the contents of the package she'd just received

Remus frowned as he surveyed the pile of seven books (four of which were veritable breeze blocks); the books all had one thing in common- Harry Potter. His baby nephew's name was printed on all seven.

"What are they?" Remus demanded; unnerved by the books' sudden appearance in his home, and the effect they were having on his mate.

"They appear the story of my time at Hogwarts Remus" Hermione told him, leaning back against her spouse and relaxing into his embrace. "You remember me telling you that I was born in 1979, well, if I'm right, these contain the details of my school days in the 90s"

"But they have Prongslet's name on them"

Hermione laughed. "Of course they do. He was my best friend... before I started changing things"

"Before you saved Spitfire's life you mean?"

"Yeah"

Spitfire, or Hazel Black as she was more commonly known, was Lily Potter's twin sister and only alive because of a little known side effect of prolonged time turner use known as a time twitch. Time itself had thrown Hermione back to 1963 to the day that the three year old Hazel had run out in front of a car after a ball that she had failed to catch. Hermione's accidental interference had, strangely, landed the time traveller squarely in 1977 with no way of getting back to her own time aside from the slow path.

She hadn't been idle on the slow path though- she'd reprised her role as Horcrux Hunter; recruiting the Marauders (Moony, Spitfire, Padfoot and Prongs), Lily Evans, Frank Longbottom and Alice Prewitt to help her. Her efforts did not prove in vain and by New Years' Day 1980 Tom Marvolo Riddle had embarked upon the 'next great adventure'

"So this is what Harry's life would have been like if you hadn't come back in time" Remus looked at the books again. "I think they deserve a look"

"Alright" Hermione nodded, numbly. "But only if the others want to"

~V~


	2. The Boy Who Lived

_**~The Boy Who Lived~**_

The others, much to Hermione's secret embarrassment, did want to read the books. The four families: Longbottom, Potter, Black and Lupin sat in Remus and Hermione's living room. Harry, Neville and Sirius and Hazel's son Theo sat playing on the rug.

"Alright" Hermione, who was holding the first book in her hands, said. "I think we should take it in turns to read a chapter each. I'll go first"

"Seems fair" Hazel nodded. "Given that you're in them"

"So are Remus, Sirius, Harry and Neville" she returned, not feeling like she should mention what happened to Frank and Alice in her old time line.

"The point still stands love" Remus put in. "Now read, we're all curious"

Hermione glared at her husband though without any real conviction and opened the book to the first page.

"**Chapter One**" she began. "**The Boy Who Lived**"

Lily whimpered softly at the sound of the title but made no comment.

"**Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were very proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense."**

The Evans twins exchanged dark looks.

'_She didn't move?' _Lily mouthed

'_Always did hate change' _Hazel mouthed back shrugging

"**Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache.**

**Mrs Dursley was thin and blond and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on her neighbours."**

"Well _somebody_ hasn't changed" Hazel remarked

"Always did hate change" Lily quirked her brow to prove a point, Hazel stuck her tongue out at her twin.

"**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere."**

Every adult eye in the room flickered to the three boys playing on the rug before Hermione continued reading.

"**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters."**

"Aww we love you too" James cooed, voice dripping with sarcasm

"**Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley's sister,****but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband****were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be."**

"And proud to be" Hazel and Lily said together

"Why would anyone want to be _Dursleyish?_" Sirius scoffed

"Is that even a word?" Remus asked his wife who shook her head and started reading again

"**The Dursleys shuddered to think what their neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in there street. The Dursleys knew the Potters had a small son too, but they had never seen him. This boy was another good reason to keep the Potters away; they didn't was Dudley mixing with a child like that."**

Hazel and Lily exchanged another dark look- silently agreeing that they didn't want their sons mixing with a child like _Dudley_ either. A glance at the third mother in the room told them that Alice shared their feelings

"**When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on a dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside that suggests that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out the most boring tie for work****and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window. At half past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Dursley on the cheek and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now throwing a tantrum and throwing cereal at the walls. 'Little tyke' chortled Mr Dursley as he left the house.****He got into his car and backed out of number four Privet Drive."**

"Even we had rules" Sirius exclaimed, and Hazel squeezed her husband's hand

"Yes he's going to be spoiled rotten we can all see that too" she whispered. "But we don't need to worry about him now"

"**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something being peculiar- a cat reading a map."**

"McGonagall!" the former marauders chorused, in harmonized sing song voices

"**For a second, Mr Dursley didn't realise what he'd seen- then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but not a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of light. Mr Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr Dursley turned around the corner he watched the cat in his rearview mirror. It was now reading the sign that read**_**Privet Drive-**_**no,**_**looking**_**at the sign; cats couldn't read maps or signs. Mr Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day."**

"Nice open mind you've got their Dursley" Frank scoffed

"**But on the edge of town, drills were driven completely out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people around. People in cloaks.****Mr Dursley couldn't bear people that dressed up in funny clothes- the get-ups you saw on young people! He supposed it was some stupid new fashion."**

"Idiot" Hermione hissed, honestly didn't the moron know that cloaks were older than coats

"**He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of those weirdoes standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr Dursley was quite enraged to see some of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older then he was, and was wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr Dursley that this was probably some sort of silly stunt- these people were obviously collecting money for something... yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on, and a few minutes later, Mr Dursley arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills.**

"**Mr Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning.**_**He**_**didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead.****Most of them had never seen an owl even at night.**

"How come?" Alice asked, frowning

"Muggles don't use owl post" Hazel explained

"**Mr Dursley however had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more."**

"Such a lovely brother in law Tuney has given us eh Lils?"

Lily laughed agreeing whole heartedly with her twin. "Oh yeah a real prince charming"

"**He was in a good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to by a bun from the bakers' opposite.**

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large donut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard—"**

Lily whimpered again and James rubbed her arms, soothingly. "It's not real anymore Lily flower"

**"- yes, their son, Harry -"**

Harry looked up at the sound of his name, but quickly returned his attention to his cousin and their friend

"**Mr Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it. He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb, seized the telephone and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking...no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn't such an unusual name."**

James opened his mouth to speak but Hazel cut across him.

"Potter may be a unique name in the Wizarding world Prongs, but there are lots of them in the Muggle world"

**He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.****There was no point in worrying Mrs Dursley. She always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her- if he'd had a sister like that...**

"Only you would think the bearded lady was preferable to having a witch for a sister" Hazel snapped, she didn't mind people insulting her, but nobody insulted her family

"**but all the same, those people in cloaks...**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at 5:00, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

**"Sorry," he grunted,****as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare: 'Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!'**

"Sounds like Flitwick did when we spiked his tea back in third year" Sirius chuckled

All the adults, save Hermione, burst out laughing at their shared memory of the tiny charms professor on that sugar rush

"**And the old man hugged Mr Dursley around the middle and walked off."**

"Surprised anyone could manage that" Hermione remarked, snidely, drawing more laughter from her friends and family

**Mr Dursley stood rooted to spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was."**

"He knows what a muggle is"

"Don't sound so shocked Lils" Hazel shrugged. "You know how much of an idiot he is"

"**He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining thing, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination"**

"And he has a small son" Remus shook his head, even if he was the only man in the room who wasn't yet a father his experience with his two nephews taught him that imagination was a must when dealing with small children

"There won't be anything _small_ about that boy for long Rem" Hermione told him. "Except perhaps his brain size"

Lily and Hazel snorted

"Takes after his old man then" Lily giggled

"**As he pulled into the driveway of number four Privet Drive, the first thing he saw-and it didn't improve his mood- was the tabby cat he'd spotted this morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes."**

"Minnie" Sirius declared

**"Shoo!" said Mr Dursley loudly**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look."**

"Definitely Minnie" Remus nodded

"**Was this normal cat behaviour? Mr Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife."**

"Coward" Lily mumbled

**Mrs Dursley had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner about Mrs Next-Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learnt a new word ('Shan't!').****Mr Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report of the evening news."**

"Mama" Harry pulled on Lily's trouser leg. "Dink"

Harry's words acted like a trigger because the other two boys also decided that they were thirsty. A few minutes later the three boys were sat on their respective mother's lap; each sucking happily on the teat of a bottle of pumpkin juice.

Hermione smiled wistfully, longing for the day that she and Remus had a child of their own. Hopefully it wouldn't be long now. Shaking her head she returned her attention to the book

"'**And finally bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving unusually today. Although owls usually hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern.' The news reader allowed himself to grin ' Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?'**

**'****Well, Ted,'"**

"Reckon it's our Ted?" Hazel asked her husband

"Could be love" he replied. Ted Tonks, Sirius cousin by marriage, had recently left his job on the Knight Bus in favour of a position in some Muggle entertainment industry

"**said the weatherman, 'I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire and Dundee have been phoning in telling me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early– it's not till next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight'**

**Mr Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…**

Lily hugged Harry closer to her

"It's not going to happen sweetheart" James murmured, stroking Lily's hair soothingly. "Halloween's been and gone and so has Voldemort"

Hermione couldn't help but wonder whether James' words were solely for his wife's benefit or if he was more effected by what might have happened than he let people think

"**Mrs Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er— Petunia, dear— you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he had expected, Mrs Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister."**

**"No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

**"Funny stuff on the news," Mr Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…"**

**"**_**So?**_**" snapped Mrs Dursley.**

**"Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know…**_**her **_**crowd."**

"Our _crowd_?" Hazel hissed. "We're witches and wizards not yobbos"

"Not anymore anyway" Lily teased, then squealed when her husband tickled her sides in retaliation.

Harry sent his parents a questioning look, but didn't stop drinking his pumpkin juice

"**Mrs Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son — he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

**"I suppose so," said Mrs Dursley stiffly.**

**"What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"Howard?" Lily winced. "Ew"

Hazel smirked; Lily had hated that name since their primary school days when a boy by that name had picked on her

**"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Nobody did" James growled

"Better name than _Dudley_" Remus remarked

**"Oh, yes," said Mr Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of— well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"Nice to feel appreciated isn't it?" Hazel asked her twin

"Yeah" Lily nodded

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters **_**were **_**involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on— he yawned and turned over— it couldn't affect **_**them**_**…**

**How very wrong he was.**

"Poor Pronglset" Sirius shook his head; he owed Hermione more than he could ever repay. She'd effectively given him his wife; she was the reason that Hazel had not died as a toddler; she was the reason that he had a son; she was the reason that these books would remain as fiction, horrible, horrible fiction.

"**Mr Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice."**

"Dumbledore!" the Marauders chorused, affectively lightening the mood

**This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop."**

"I've always wanted one of them" Hazel groaned enviously. She'd wanted a deluminator, as they were actually called, since one detention in second year had been served cleaning the headmaster's collection of oddments

"**He clicked it again— the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

**"Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Hi Minnie" Sirius waved

"Padfoot, you're talking to a book, love" Hazel chuckled, ruffling Theo's dark red mop of hair

"**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one."**

"I've always wondered why the head of Gryffindor wears a Slytherin green cloak" James remarked

"**Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled. "How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

**"My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

**"You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

**"All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

**"Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news."**

**She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"I remember him" Alice announced. "Baffled me that Dumbledore made him prefect, let alone head boy"

"Dadalus was head boy?" Hermione asked shocked

"Yep, second year was fun with him in charge of the prefects" Hazel grinned. "Especially with Lunetta Lovegood as head girl"

"Tragic what happened to her" Lily sighed. "Miranda told me that if her baby's a girl she and Xeno are going to name her after Lunetta"

Hermione smiled, knowing that there would indeed be a Luna Lovegood born in a few months.

"**"You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

**"I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really **_**has **_**gone, Dumbledore?"**

**"It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore.**

"He actually has this time" James smiled, casting a glance in Hermione's direction, she smiled back and carried on reading

"**"We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

**"A **_**what**_**?"**

**"A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

**"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who **_**has **_**gone—"**

**"My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: **_**Voldemort**_**.""**

"_Voldemort voldemort ooh Voldie Voldie Voldie Voldemort"_

Hazel elbowed her husband. "Not the time" she hissed

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

**"I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, **_**Voldemort**_**, was frightened of."**

**"You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

**"Only because you're too — well —**_**noble **_**to use them."**

**"It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs.""**

"You still think he's straight Alice?" Hazel asked

The two old of them had been arguing over their former headmaster's sexuality since fourth year.

Alice ignored her

"**"Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the **_**rumours **_**that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

**"What they're **_**saying**_**," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters.""**

Lily whimpered and James hugged her close.

"**"The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're —**_**dead**_**."**

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped."**

**"Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…""**

"You don't have to" Remus' voice was oddly hoarse, sounding like he was trying not to cry. Hermione raised his hand to her lips and kissed it before continuing.

"**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke— and that's why he's gone."**

**"Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

**"It's— it's **_**true**_**?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

**"We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me **_**why **_**you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"Not anymore" Hazel's mismatched eyes were wet. "Lily, Prongs, I swear I won't let him end up with _them_ if anything happens to you"

Lily managed a sad smile at her twin. "I know, thank you"

"**"You don't mean– you **_**can't **_**mean the people who live **_**here**_**?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son— I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

**"It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter.""**

"A letter, seriously?" Sirius scoffed

**"A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous— a legend— I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future— there will be books written about Harry— every child in our world will know his name!""**

"You sound like Minnie" Hazel teased her husband

Sirius pouted, making his wife laugh

"**"Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?""**

"She has a point there" Remus pointed out.

"He hated his fame" Hermione agreed. "But he also hated growing up with the Muggles"

"Now he's free from both of them" Hazel smiled, her expression softening further when her nephew's green eyes stared up at her from where he sat on Lily's lap

"**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes— yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it."**

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

**"You think it—**_**wise**_**— to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?""**

"I'd trust him with my life" Hermione murmured. "Harry did too"

"**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore."**

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to— what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky— and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.""**

"My bike!" Sirius spluttered. "What's Hagrid doing with my baby?"

"Funny choice of words there Padfoot" Hazel remarked acidly. "Considering our son is sat on my lap"

Sirius gulped- his wife's nickname wasn't Spitfire just because of the markings which surrounded her wolf form's maw

"**If the motorbike was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so **_**wild**_**— long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir.""**

"That apparently Padfoot" Remus smirked at Sirius

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning."**

**"Is that where…?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well— give him here, Hagrid— we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I— could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it—Lily an' James dead— an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles…"**

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two.**

A growl escaped Lily's throat. "He left my son on a doorstep? In November?"

Even Hermione hadn't known that- she doubted Harry had either. She noticed James' grip on Lily's shoulders tighten briefly

**For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

"They dropped my best friend on a doorstep and then buggered off to a party?" Hermione shrieked- yes she knew that none of this was real anymore and that now Harry was her nephew not her friend but she couldn't let _that _slide

"He was a great headmaster but he shouldn't be allowed near babies" Alice shook her head, dropping a kiss on Neville's dark downy hair

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall… Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

Lily hugged her son tightly, lips pressed against his down covered scalp. James could be heard muttering darkly about Dumbledore's idiocy- leaving a fifteen month old baby on a doorstep in November might have been acceptable in the dark ages but not the twentieth century.

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone."**

"He's gonna need it living there" Hazel mumbled

**"A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley… He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"**

"I can assure you that the Harry Potter Day thing didn't replace Halloween" Hermione told them

"Oh well that's just peachy" Lily growled at her. "But what good is it raising a glass to my baby boy while he's left to rot with people who won't love him just because he's a wizard"

"There's no use arguing about this" Remus interjected, calmly, prizing the book out of his wife's grip and turning to the next page. "Now, why don't we read on? I'll read next"

~V~

* * *

**_What do you think?_**

**_I can't promise speedy or regular updates but I will do my best_**


	3. The Vanishing Glass

_**Here's chapter two- my internet went down last night so I've had nothing to distract me while I wrote this; please don't expect my updates to be so speedy.**_

_**Thanks to my lovely reviewers- you guys rock. Thanks also to those of you who've added this story to your favourites or follows :)**_

* * *

_**~The Vanishing Glass~**_

**"Vanishing Glass"** Remus read.

"Ooh Harry what have you done?" James cooed at his little boy, touching him on the nose

Harry giggled

"We'll find out if we read Prongs" Remus told him, not lifting his amber eyes from the page

"**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all."**

He heard Hazel sigh, knowing his best friend was rolling her eyes at her older sister. "Ah typical Petunia"

"**The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls.**

"**Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets, but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

**Yet Harry Potter"**

"My Harwy" Harry declared

"That's right sweetheart" Lily smiled, kissing her son's temple. "You're Harry"

"**was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

"Merlin" Hazel winced. "Do you remember when she used to wake us up like that Lil?"

Lily nodded

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

**"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it.**

**He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"He remembers the bike?" Sirius grinned. "Cool"

**His aunt was back outside the door. "Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

**Harry groaned.**

"**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"That he's ten and shouldn't be made to cook bacon" Hermione growled, glaring at the book

"Wouldn't it be cool if Dudley ended up a wizard?" Sirius put in

"Merlin Sirius" Lily gasped. "She'd disown him!"

"Carry on Remus" Frank encouraged, noticing the frustrated look on Remus' face

**"Nothing, nothing…"**

**Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten?**

"'Cause he's ten?" James offered- he'd been terrible at remembering dates at that age

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on.**

**Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

"_What?_" Lily growled. "That house has four bedrooms and my son sleeps under the stairs?"

Even Hermione looked stunned

"You didn't know about this?" James asked her. "Did you?"

"No" she assured him. "He didn't mention much of his life before Hogwarts"

And she was beginning to understand why

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

"Why does any one person need two televisions?" Alice asked

"What is a telly-vision?" Frank asked, as the only pureblood adult in the room who hadn't done muggle studies at Hogwarts

"Muggle entertainment" Alice told him. "They sit and watch performances that come into the television box using a sort of muggle magic-substitute called electricity"

"**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise— unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry,"**

"He's bloody lucky that this isn't going to happen" James seethed. "Or _he'd_ be _my_ punching bag"

"James" Alice warned as three women's maternal instincts kicked in and covered their respective son's ears. "Language"

"_Sorry" _James mouthed

"**but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast."**

"Takes after his dad then"

"Without the ego hopefully" Lily remarked

James pouted; pretending to be hurt by his wife's put down

"**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

"Four times…? Don't tell me they starved him" Lily pleaded her green eyes meeting Hermione's brown ones

"I can't" she admitted, wishing not for the first time that while she'd been growing up, that she was able to help Harry out more

"I am going to murder our sister" Hazel snarled. "She'd better pray that we don't run into each other"

Theo, startled by the angry noises his mother was making began to whimper.

"Hey now honey" she cooed, holding her son close. "Mummy's sorry baby, mummy's sorry"

**Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair, and bright green eyes.**

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

James ground his teeth, while his wife and sister in law exchanged murderous looks over their son's heads

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

Lily noticed the shocked look on Hermione's face

"What's wrong Mione?"

"In all the time I knew him Harry never liked that scar" she replied. "It's odd to think that it was at one point the only thing that he liked about himself"

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

**"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.**

**"And don't ask questions." Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. "Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting."**

"Why good morning to you too Mr Walrus" Frank spat

"**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place."**

"Curse of the Potters strikes again" Sirius laughed as James ran his hand through his hair, as he used to in their Hogwarts days

"**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel**

**Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig."**

All of the adults laughed at that

"He thinks like you Lily" Hazel chuckled

Lily hid her smile by kissing Harry's hair

"**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Hold on a sec" James held one finger up. "Thirty six presents?"

"That's what it says Prongs" Remus nodded

"So the pig in a wig gets thirty six birthday presents and my son has to wear his cousin's too big and-me-downs?"

"It's not going to happen" Lily muttered, holding Harry close. "It's not going to happen"

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.**

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over. Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly,**

**"And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin?"**

**"Two more presents. Is that all right?" Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"Oh this just keeps getting better" Sirius' tone was bitter, Hazel placed Theo on his lap to distract him from the anger which she knew was bubbling away inside her spouse

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then." Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

**"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"He's encouraging this?" Alice asked appalled. "What a horrible human being"

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him."**

**She jerked her head in Harry's direction. Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"So he doesn't know Arabella's a squib?" Remus asked his wife

"Not yet" she replied

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr Paws, and Tufty again.**

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

"Not the bearded lady" Hazel gasped, dramatically. "Anything but that!"

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy." The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"Charming extended family we've got eh Pads?" James said, brightly

"Oh yes just lovely" Sirius nodded

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"**

**"On holiday in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer). Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"Accidental magic can't do _that_ much damage" Hermione muttered

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"**

"You're not leaving my son in a car" Lily hissed

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…" Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying— it had been years since he'd really cried— but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

**"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"Did she just…?" Hazel sent a flabbergasted look to her twin.

"I think she did" Lily nodded. "But why would she do that to her own child?"

**"I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms. Just then, the doorbell rang— "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically— and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them.**

**Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"What a brat" Hermione muttered darkly

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy— any funny business, anything at all— and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

**"I'm not going to do anything," **

"Famous last words" Hermione sighed, remembering a conversation from her second year about Dudley and a Boa Constrictor

"**said Harry, "honestly…" But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did. The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

"She. Did. What?" Lily looked murderous

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

James laughed. "He really does have my hair"

"What?" Frank asked puzzled

Alice blushed. "When we were nine I had to stay at Potter Manor over the weekend- James spent all of the time that we weren't flying or around his parents, annoying me so I decided to cut his hair off while he slept, in retaliation…"

"I woke up with my hair completely regrown and all of the hair that Alice had cut off scattered across my pillow"

Remus chuckled and returned his attention to the book.** "He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly. Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls)."**

"Eww" Alice winced

"**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished."**

"Oh how kind" Lily scoffed, bitterly

"**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump."**

"I can sort of understand that one" Lily relented. "Climbing buildings is dangerous"

"Didn't need to lock him in a cupboard for it though did they?" James huffed

"**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs Figg's cabbage-smelling living room. While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles. "roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

**"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying.""**

All of the adults groaned, none of them were seers but they could all see that the reaction to that innocent comment was not going to be good for Harry

"**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream." But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon— they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas."**

"Petunia knows that he can't help it" Hazel frowned

"You'd think they'd try being nice to him" Hermione put in. "Accidental magic happens more often if the kid's happy"

"Lily and I used to experiment" Hazel told her

"We got quite good at controlling it" Lily agreed. "Petunia probably thinks Harry's doing it on purpose"

"**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond."**

Sniggers rippled through the room.

"Definitely your son Lily" Hazel chuckled

"**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last."**

"Uh oh"

"**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a dustbin— but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep. Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

**"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge. "Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away. Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house. The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

**It winked."**

Lily gasped

James stiffened. "What?"

"**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too."**

"Now Harry" Sirius looked at the baby whose smooth forehead would never be blighted by a lightning bolt shaped scar. "This is very important, if a snake winks at you, you do not wink back at it, ok?"

"Pahfuh" Harry cooed, reaching out to his uncle. "Pahfuh"

Lily rose and placed her son on Sirius' lap, beside Theo. Hazel smiled into her hand, as she watched her husband, former lady's man that he was, cuddling their son and nephew. Just three years ago he had actually been scared of small children- that had changed when he'd clapped eyes on her holding their son for the first time.

"**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time."**

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying." The snake nodded vigorously."**

"Mione" James looked at her, strangely. "Is my son a parcel mouth?"

"Not anymore"

"What?" All eyes in the room were upon Hermione

"I told you that Voldemort inadvertently made a horcrux of Harry the night he tried to kill him" she began. "A few of Voldemort's traits passed to Harry through the scar- parcel tongue was one of them. He lost the ability after Voldemort died"

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked. The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**"Boa Constrictor, Brazil. Was it nice there?""**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo.**

**"Oh, I see— so you've never been to Brazil?" As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.**

**"DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!" Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened— one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"Oh Merlin" Lily gasped

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."**

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock."**

"Poor guy" Alice shook her head.

"The ministry'll have someone on the way to clean up the mess" Frank reminded her

"**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?" The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?""**

"Don't tell him that" Sirius pleaded

"No chance" Hazel shook her head. "If he's anything like his mother he'll look for opportunities to grass Harry up"

""**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go— cupboard— stay— no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy. Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food."**

"Ah a true Marauder" James smiled, wiping away an imaginary tear of pride

Sirius ruffled Harry's hair and Hazel and Remus grinned at each other

"**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died."**

"Car crash" Hermione muttered darkly

"**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house. When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family."**

"Not anymore" Hazel interjected. "Thanks to his aunt Mione"

Remus, smirked as he watched his wife blush.

"**Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word."**

"Must've been so confusing" Hermione shook her head

"**The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look."**

"Idiots" Lily grumbled

"**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang."**

"Can I read next?" Hazel asked

Remus handed her the book and she turned the page and as she looked at the chapter title, a smile formed on her lips.

~V~


	4. The Letters From No One

**_Here we are with chapter 4 :)_  
**

**_Thanks again to everyone who's been kind enough to read and review/ favourite/ follow my story. You guys are awesome :)_**

* * *

_**~The Letters From No One~**_

"Lily, Prongs" Hazel smiled looking at her sister and brother in law in turn. "You'll like this"

"Oh?" Lily asked

"Yeah" she nodded. "The chapter's called: **The Letters From No One**"

"His Hogwarts letter!" James crowed. "Hallelujah!"

Lily however was pensive. "Letter_s_? Why the plural?"

Hazel looked at Hermione who gestured to the book. Taking the hint, Hazel began to read.

"**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control aeroplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"Poor Arabella" Alice sighed- Arabella Figg was the reason she had not failed OWL Potions, so she had a soft spot for the old Squib. "But you'd think she'd go to St Mungo's with that leg"

"Not if she's pretending to be a muggle" Remus suggested. "It'd raise questions"

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Now who does that remind me of?" Lily asked; face a careful mask of innocence

"Oi!" the Marauders chorused as the three non-Marauders laughed.

"And Prongs is no bigger than the rest of us" Sirius announced

James huffed, pouting as the laughter grew heartier.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting.**

In that one sentence all good humour in the living room evaporated

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley.**

"Of course he won't" Hermione smiled, leaning against her husband. "Dudley couldn't get into Hogwarts if you took him there by Side-along Apparition"

All of the adults snorted

"Me_ow_ Mione" Hazel laughed

**Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

**"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it— it might be sick."**

Laughter filled the room at that. Hazel kissed Harry's forehead and Theo reached out for his mother to take him.

"Just like his mummy" she remarked, shooting a look at her twin as she settled her son on her own lap

**Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs Figg's. Mrs Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"Never was much of a cook" Alice chuckled, remembering the times that the squib had cooked for her

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"It's the twentieth century not the stone age" Hermione scoffed. "Who runs this school, cave men?"

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up.**

**Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.**

"Tuney's porridge hasn't improved then?" Hazel quipped

Lily laughed. "Doesn't sound like it."

**"What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

**"Your new school uniform," she said.**

**Harry looked in the bowl again.**

**"Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

"Tuney hates sarcasm Harry"

Harry looked at his mother, uncomprehendingly

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things grey for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"Yeahh" Lily drawled, scathingly. "Just like everyone else's"

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High— like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

"Good thing he won't have to wear the elephant skin" Remus remarked. "Or go to Stonewall High."

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

**They heard the click of the letter box and flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the post, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

Silence fell over the room

"Did he just…?" James blinked owlishly, eyes wide behind his glasses

"I think he did" Sirius nodded. "But I can't believe it"

"Can't see it lasting though" Hazel sighed

**"Make Harry get it."**

**"Get the post, Harry."**

**"Make Dudley get it."**

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

"Told ya so" Hazel sang quietly

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was on holiday in the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and— a letter for Harry.**

"His Hogwarts letter" Lily smiled, leaning against her husband

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would?**

"Um… the entire Wizarding world?" Frank offered

**He had no friends, no other relatives— he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

**Mr H. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs 4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.**

"_Hogwarts!_" the cry rose up in perfect chorus, leaving the three baby boys to stare at their parents confused

**"Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

"Don't give up your day job, Dursley" Sirius advised

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter.**

**He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk…"**

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

"No…" Lily groaned. "Tuney stop your son"

"Lily it's a book- it can't here you" Hermione reminded her

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge.**

"Unless it's Petunia's porridge" Hazel put in

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness— Vernon!"**

"Drama queen" Hazel sniffed

"To be fair she was probably expecting someone to turn up with the letter, like Ignatius Weasley did with ours" Lily shrugged

"_Ignatius_ Weasley?" Hermione asked. "Is he related to Arthur?"

"His uncle" Alice nodded. "Nice bloke, taught Muggle Studies- obsessed with Muggles, kept going on about them at Molly and Arthur's wedding"

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"Brat" Hermione harrumphed

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

**"I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."**

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. Harry didn't move.**

**"I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

**"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

**"OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address— how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

"That's something to ask Dumbledore" Frank reasoned. "It's a valid point"

**"Watching— spying— might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want—"**

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best… we won't do anything…"**

"Wrong again walrus" Sirius chirped

**"But—"**

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

"Stamp… out?" Lily repeated, tone murderous

The tension in the room was palpable as her twin sister pressed on with the book in her hands

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"And Harry wasn't crushed?" Sirius' mouth fell open in mock astonishment. "Merlin's beard, how bit is that cupboard?"

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to me?"**

**"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."**

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful. "Er— yes, Harry— about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking… you're really getting a bit big for it… we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom."**

Lily and all four marauders growled at that.

"Second bedroom?" Alice repeated, apalled

**"Why?" said Harry.**

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom.**

**It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbour's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favourite programme had been cancelled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

"Now there's a shock" Hermione and Hazel said in tandem

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't want him in there… I need that room… make him get out…"**

"What a brat" Frank sniffed

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

"Don't think that way sweetheart" Lily pleaded

"Lils, it's a book- Harry's right here" Hazel gestured to the baby on her husband's lap

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.**

"If he's anything like Prongsy that'll make him suspicious" Sirius grinned at James who stuck his tongue out at his best friend

**They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive—'"**

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

**"Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley — go — just go."**

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

"Potter plans never work" Remus remarked

James scowled and threw a pillow at him

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights. He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first.**

**His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door —**

**"AAAAARRRGH!"**

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat — something alive!**

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

Laughter filled the room at that

"Go Harry!" Sirius whooped, taking out his wand and levitated his nephew a few inches into the air. Harry giggled- he loved being in the air

"Sirius, put him down" Lily growled. "_Now_"

Sirius gulped and did as he was told

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

**"I want—" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.**

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."**

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"Listen to your wife, walrus" Lily suggested. "She knows more about our world than you do"

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

"Flitwick's involved" Alice grinned. "Brilliant"

"Fi-wih" said Neville in an attempt to echo his mother. "Fi-wih"

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

'Coo-coo, coo-coo' sang the cuckoo clock mounted on the wall

"How's that for timing?" Hazel chuckled. "If you'll pardon the dodgy pun"

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two-dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. **

"And there's McGonagall" James cheered. "Go Minnie!"

"Aninny" Theo chimed in, pointing at Hermione

"Aww he knows my name" Hermione laughed and pointed to herself. "That's right Theo honey, _Hermione_"

**While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

"More people than who want to talk to you porky" Hazel spat

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today —"**

"Wrong again" Frank laughed, then turned to his wife with a puzzled frown. "Do they really not get post on Sundays?"

"Nope" Hazel shook her head. "Muggle postmen only deliver six days a week"

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one—**

"There's a seeker in the making" Hazel beamed, she herself had been the Gryffindor Seeker since third year, moving up from reserve after Dylan Johnson left

Remus saw his wife smile a wry smile, but didn't comment

**"Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his moustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

**He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

"Ah the joys of magic" Sirius grinned. "If he wasn't a muggle he wouldn't be having that problem"

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while.**

**"Shake 'em off… shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

"It's not going to work" Frank sang out

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"Aww poor wikkle diddums" Lily bit out, condescendingly

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

**"'Scuse me, but is one of you Mr H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

**Mr H. Potter**

**Room 17**

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

"You'd think she'd do more than that" Alice mused

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

"That's Mail tampering" Frank declared, disapprovingly

"Illegal" his two fellow Aurors chorused

**"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multi-story car park.**

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" **

"Gone?" Lily asked, feigning innocence

**Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.**

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled.**

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television."**

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday— and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television— then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

**Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun — last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

"Walrus Jr gets two bedrooms and thirty nine birthday presents and Harry gets hand me downs to wear and second hand socks as presents?" Frank arched one incredulous eyebrow. "Yeah that's fair"

**Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

"A rare moment of optimism there" Hermione noted

"Rare?" James asked, frowning

"Fairly" she admitted

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.**

"Not a good sign" Lily fretted

"Probably not smiling actually" Hazel countered. "It'll just be gas"

All the adults laughed

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

"Now _that's_ not a good sign" Hazel remarked

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-grey water below them.**

"He'd rather put his whole family in danger than let Harry go to Hogwarts?" Lily shook her head in disbelief. "What an idiot"

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of crisps each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire but the empty crisp bags just smoked and shrivelled up.**

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

"Think Billy Connolly's job is safe huh?" said Hazel to Lily, who nodded, chuckling

"Who?" Alice frowned

"Muggle comedian" Sirius told her. "Scottish bloke, very funny- swears a lot"

"How do you know that?" Lily asked

"Took Hazel to one of his performances" he told his sister in law, putting one arm around his wife. "Just after we got together"

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver the post.**

**Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

"Oh now that's just super" Remus grunted. "Mione, _please_ tell me Harry gets his Hogwarts letter soon"

"Just read Hazel" Hermione encouraged

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

"Scotland" James shrugged. "Or wherever she spends her summer holidays"

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine — maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

There were cries of: "Yeah go on" "Wake 'im up" and "Do it! Do it! Do it!" from the assembled readers

— **three… two… one…**

**BOOM.**

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"Dun… dun… _dun_" Sirius sang

"Who's reading next?" Hazel asked and wrinkled her nose. "Whoever it is, can you just wait a few minutes Thee* needs a change"

She rose, settled Theo on her hip and summoned the changing bag as she left the room

"I'll read next" Frank volunteered and picked up the book that Hazel had left on the seat behind her.

~V~

* * *

**_*Thee is pronounced Fee_**


	5. The Keeper of the Keys

_**Well my friends, here's chapter 5.**_

_**Once again thank you to everyone who's taken the time to read and review/ favourite/ follow my story since the last chapter was added :) you guys are awesome.**_

_**This chapter includes a little snippet about our two OCs- I don't think I've been clear enough about what they look like so...**_

* * *

_**~The Keeper of the Keys~**_

Hazel dropped Theo's dirty nappy into the compartment on the bag which had been charmed to safely incinerate its contents. The baby bag was a muggle thing which had been modified by Arthur Weasley- it had a compartment which regulated temperature of both bottle and baby food; the incinerating pocket for dirties and a bottomless charm in the main compartment to hold everything a young mother needed for her child.

She regarded her little boy as he sat on his changing mat. He was adorable- she could see a lot of her father in him- like his father before him Theo Sirius George Black was going to be a heart breaker when he hit puberty. He had her thick dark red hair and her mother's dark blue irises in Sirius' eyes- and fortunately (from her perspective at least) her son hadn't inherited her total heterochromia. Her blue and green eyes had been a source of derision during primary school (at Hogwarts it had, at one point been the only thing which set her apart from Lily).

"Well little man" she smiled, after washing her hands and stuffing the changing mat back into the bag. "Shall we go downstairs?"

"Mumm" replied, reaching out to her

She picked him up and shouldered the bag and left the bathroom

* * *

"Ok" Hazel smiled as she re-entered the living room. "All sorted"

She set Theo down on the rug with Harry and Neville, who were playing with blocks and sat back beside her husband.

Frank, who was holding the book, smiled and opened it to the right page. **"The Keeper of the Keys,"**

**BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.**

**"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands – now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"Oh clever" Hermione drawled, sarcastically. "An untrained wizard and a loaded muggle firearm in the same room"

**"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you— I'm armed!"**

**There was a pause. Then—**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

"Hagrid" Sirius grinned

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

"Definitely Hagrid"

"We know Padfoot" Spitfire, Moony and Prongs chorused

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey…"**

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

"I was a little bit scared of him when I first saw him" Hazel admitted

"Really?" Sirius asked, looking at his wife curiously

She nodded. "For all of about five minutes, Moony set me straight though"

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes." **

Lily and James smiled at each other and then down at their son who was currently chewing on his teething ring; at fifteen months old Harry already had Lily's eyes and James' untameable ebony hair.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

**"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

"Yeah that'll work" Hermione rolled her eyes

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

"Think we _should_ turn him into a mouse?" James asked

"Wish we could" Frank sighed. "But we'd get in trouble for it."

**"Anyway — Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in green icing.**

"Here's hoping that Hagrid didn't bake that himself" Hermione murmured, wishing she could forget how bad Hagrid's cooking was

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"Harry" Lily chided gently

Harry looked up at his mother. "Mama?"

"Nothing baby" she assured him with a soft smile

**The giant chuckled. "True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

**"What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"Typical Hagrid"

The Marauders laughed, all recalling one particularly eventful New Years' Eve spent with the boarder-line alcoholic Half Giant- by midnight he'd been so drunk that he'd dragged them out in the snow to set off a job lot of muggle fireworks.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shrivelled crisp bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

"Still using the umbrella" Remus chuckled, shaking his head

"Umbrella?" Alice asked, curious

"It's where he keeps the pieces of his wand" Hazel explained

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea.**

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

**"Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

"Thank you Hagrid" Lily whispered, James squeezed her hand

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

"That's much better" Lily nodded approvingly

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course."**

**"Er— no," said Harry.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

"Uh oh spaghetti-o" Sirius sang quietly

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

**"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Harry**

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy — this boy! — knows nothin' abou'— about ANYTHING?"**

"If Harry's anything like his dad he won't like _that_" Sirius smirked at his best friend

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

**"I know some things," he said. "I can, you know, do maths and stuff."**

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."**

**"What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

"Head for the Hills" James cried out dramatically. "Exploding Gamekeeper!"

Lily shut him up with a sharp swat around the head

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry. "But yeh must know about yer mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."**

**"What? My — my mum and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

All eyes in the room landed on Hermione seeking an answer for that very question

"No" Hermione shook her head. "Just him"

**"Yeh don' know… yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

**"Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.**

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

Hazel snorted at her muggle brother in law's continued futile attempts to keep Harry in the dark

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept what from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

"Like he's going to listen to him" Alice scoffed

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

**"Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry— yer a wizard."**

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

In the Lupin house however, all the adults were cheering and the three little boys joined in, simply because the grown-ups were making loud noises too

**"I'm a what?" gasped Harry.**

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"Finally" James moaned

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**

**Dear Mr Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall,**

**Deputy Headmistress**

Every adult in the room recited the letter, the book lying open on Frank's lap

"It never changes" Alice chuckled

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"That's his first question?" Lily asked, arching one red eyebrow

"C'mon Lily he didn't have the luxury of a half blood best friend to tell him about magic" Hazel retorted. "Or a twin with a half blood best friend to mooch the answers off"

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl — a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl**

"Poor thing" Alice sighed

— **a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**

**Given Harry his letter.**

**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.**

**Hagrid**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

Frank opened his mouth to speak

"A telephone is basically the muggle equivalent of a floo call" Hermione told him

He nodded and carried on reading:

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said.**

"Yeah right"

**Hagrid grunted.**

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

**"A what?" said Harry, interested.**

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call non-magic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"Amen to that" Hazel muttered, Lily nodded vigorously in agreement

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

**"You knew?" said Harry. "You knew I'm a— a wizard?"**

"Course they did" Lily snapped

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that — that school — and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frogspawn, turning teacups into rats.**

"I never did any of that!" Lily protested

"I did the frogspawn thing though" Hazel put in

"Oh?" Hermione asked- she liked hearing about her friends' lives before they met.

"My first boyfriend, back in first year, a Hufflepuff, Chester MacMillan gave me a handful of frogspawn for Christmas" she explained. "Best thing about it was Tuney's reaction when she tried on my robes that holiday"

"Never did like MacMillan" Sirius muttered

"Just because he got me first baby" Hazel laughed, kissing her husband's cheek

**I was the only one who saw her for what she was— a freak!**

"I really do hate your sister Lily, Hazel" Alice told the twins

"You're not the only one Ali" Hazel replied

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

"Bet she loved having _two_" Remus remarked

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

Lily and Hazel exchanged a glance, knowing that she no doubt had

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as— as—abnormal— and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

A deathly hush descended over the room; even the boys had gone quiet, sensing the tension in the room

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"**

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

"Good luck getting _that_ out of him" Remus muttered

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's gotta — yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

"I'd throw something else at them if it were me" Lily muttered darkly, James nodded, squeezing his wife's hand

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it…"**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows—"**

**"Who?"**

**"Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went… bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…"**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah — can't spell it. All right—Voldemort."**

"Merlin's beard" Sirius blinked. "He actually said it"

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too— some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches… terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him — an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

The room had gone quiet again; the war had been eleven years of absolute Hell, they'd all lost people they loved to it

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before… probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

"As if we would" James drew himself up to his full height

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em… maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an'— an'—"**

Lily sobbed quietly into James' shoulder; Harry crawled over to his parents and tugged on his father's trouser leg.

"Da! Uppy"

James took out his wand and carefully levitated his son onto his lap. "It's ok Prongslet"

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find —anywa… You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh — took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts— an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

"All except Marlene, who's living as a Muggle up in Birmingham" Alice put in

"And Amelia, she's raising little Suzie" Lily smiled; being Dorcas Bones' (nee Meadows) best friend she'd been named as Susan's godmother

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before— and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

"He's a baby" Lily whimpered, pulling Harry close. "He shouldn't be able to remember…"

"He won't Lil" Alice reasoned. "Voldemort's dead- Harry'll never meet him"

**Hagrid was watching him sadly. "Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot…."**

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

"Ooh bet Hagrid's scared" Hermione drawled, sarcastically

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured**

"How dare he even think about beating my son?" James snarled

Remus was muttering darkly, too quietly for anyone to hear what he was saying properly

**-and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion— asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types— just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -"**

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat.**

**Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word…"**

"Go on Hagrid!" Frank, Sirius and James cheered

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

**"But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

"He was never scared of saying the name" Hermione announced to her friends.

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing its self" James smiled, ruffling Harry's downy brown mop. "Good boy Harry"

"Da!" Harry squealed

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see… he was gettin' more an' more powerful— why'd he go?**

**"Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"He's not though" Lily snapped, if only to reassure herself. "Not this time"

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — I dunno what it was, no one does — but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

"Thank you for loving him so much Lily" Hermione smiled. "You ended the first war in that time line"

"We _all_ ended _this_ war" Lily returned, her green eyes wet with tears

"And with any luck it'll be the only one we have" Hazel put in, moving to pick up Theo who had fallen asleep and was in danger of drooling on Hermione's shag-pile rug. She cradled him in her arms; gaze focussed on his sweet little face

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? **

"Oh sweetie" Lily kissed Harry's brow. "All Muggle born kids feel that way"

Hazel nodded in agreement

**He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard?**

"Because accidental magic doesn't work that way" Hermione murmured

**If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. "Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it… every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry… chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach… dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back… and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

"Now _that's_ how accidental magic works" Alice smiled, meeting Hermione's gaze. "But the snake was a bit extreme"

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

"And he's going to hate it" Hazel murmured. As much like Prongs as her nephew looked, his personality was much like Lily's- she couldn't help but wonder what he'd be like now that Hermione had changed the future

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish — spell books and wands and —"**

"He'll go if he wants to _Vermin_" James snapped

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—"**

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"Uh oh" said Neville who had been taking a drink of his pumpkin juice only to spill it down his T-shirt

"I couldn't have put it better myself Nevvy" Alice chuckled, shaking her head and picking her son up. She drew her wand and muttered "_Scourgify_" and Neville's shirt was clean again. "Never insult Albus Dumbledore in front of Hagrid"

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER—" he thundered, "— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!" He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

Laughter erupted throughout the room

"Just the tail?" Hazel chuckled, silently thankful that Theo was as heavy a sleeper as his father

"To be fair there probably isn't that much more to change" Hermione remarked, flippantly and the laughter re-doubled

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

"Bye bye?" Harry offered

"That's right little man" James nodded, smiling proudly at his son. "The Muggles have gone bye bye"

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

Hazel snorted, shooting a look at Hermione. "You were right Mione"

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff — one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."**

**"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

**"Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

**"Why were you expelled?"**

"If we knew that…"

"I do" Hermione admitted

"What?" Sirius gaped at the former time traveller. "How?"

"Harry found out in our second year" she told him. "If the books don't reveal the answer by then I'll tell you"

"Ok" Sirius nodded, begrudgingly

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' door mice in one o' the pockets."**

"Nice of him to pack food for the owl" Frank grinned, placing the book, pages down on his lap. "Who's next?"

"Me" Sirius raised his hand

"Oh" Alice groaned. "Alright, as long as I can read after that?"

Sirius nodded and reached out for Frank to pass him the book.


	6. Diagon Alley

_**Meant to have this chapter up on Sunday- but as Panto season is upon us I've been rather busy helping to make sure that the audience can see what's going on on stage :)**_

_**But anyway- thanks to everyone whose been kind enough to read and review/follow/favourite my story- y'all rock!**_

_**And now without further waffle on my part- I give you...**_

* * *

_**~Diagon Alley~**_

"**Diagon Alley,"** Sirius read. "Shopping chapter?"

"He was raised Muggle, Sirius" Hazel reminded him. "You know I've never been one for shopping but to a new muggle born Diagon Alley is like something out of a fantasy novel"

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight. It was a dream, he told himself firmly. I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard.**

"Don't think that way son" James frowned

"He won't James" Frank promised him. "Not this time"

The other marauders, Lily, Alice and Hermione nodded in agreement

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.**

**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thought, his heart sinking.**

**But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

**Tap. Tap. Tap.**

**"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."**

"Was he always such a pessimist?" Lily asked over Harry's head

"He got a bit better over the years" Hermione replied

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak. Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him.**

"My poor baby" Lily dropped a kiss on Harry's hair. "What did your nasty auntie do to you?"

Harry just looked at her, puzzled

**He went straight to the window and jerked it open.**

**The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

"That'll be the dormice" Hazel laughed. "News owls don't just attack coats for no good reason"

**"Don't do that."**

"Yeah, that'll work" Sirius scoffed. "**Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

**"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl —"**

**"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

**"What?"**

"Hagrid knows that Muggles don't use owl post" Hermione put in

**"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."**

**Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets — bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags… finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

**"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

**"Knuts?"**

**"The little bronze ones."**

**Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window.**

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched. "Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

"I could throttle Petunia" Lily huffed, angry that her older sister would, if given the chance break her baby boy' spirit

"Go for it" Hazel encouraged, mismatched eyes ablaze. "As long as you save some for me"

**"Um — Hagrid?"**

**"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

**"I haven't got any money — and you heard Uncle Vernon last night… he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

"Does he think…?" James couldn't finish his sentence

"Let's just say that it's a good thing Muggle and Wizard currency is different" Hermione remarked, herself shaking with anger. "The Dursleys would have had the money you left him before he could blink"

**"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"**

**"But if their house was destroyed —"**

James snorted

"Muggles don't know that we have banks James" Lily told her husband

**"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold — an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

"Cheeky" Alice chuckled

"Not bad?" Mr and Mrs Black exchanged a dark look, both being massive fans of cold sausage sandwiches; Theo too preferred his sausages served cold

**"Wizards have banks?"**

**"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

**Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.**

**"Goblins?"**

**"Yeah — so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe — 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you — gettin' things from Gringotts — knows he can trust me, see.**

**"Got everythin'? Come on, then." Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

"Far more stable than it looks obviously" Lily smiled, relieved

**"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.**

**"Flew," said Hagrid.**

**"Flew?"**

"Thestral, d'ya think?" Hazel asked

"Maybe a Hippogriff" Frank offered as a counter suggestion

"No, you'd know if a Hippogriff was around" Hazel shook her head. "Thestrals are a lot smarter than Hippogriffs, like horses they return to their home when their rider leaves them"

Lily and Hermione stared at her

"What?" she frowned. "I got an O in NEWT Care of Magical Creatures"

**"Yeah — but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

**They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

**"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter — er — speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

"Rubeus Hagrid, closet Marauder" Frank quipped

**"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.**

**"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.**

**"Spells — enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults.**

"They're blind though" Hermione murmured, but everyone heard

"What?" Remus gasped, staring at his wife

"I've robbed Gringotts" she told them. "Didn't I mention this when we started horcrux hunting?"

"No" Remus shook his head. "You didn't"

Sirius cleared his throat and started reading again, respect for Hermione higher than ever.

**And then yeh gotta find yer way — Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

"How did you do it?" James asked intrigued

"It _should_ be in the seventh book" Hermione told him. "But if it's not I'll tell you after we've finished reading"

James nodded, only partially mollified; Sirius unconsciously mirrored his best friend's actions perfectly

Remus was just staring at his wife, unable to believe his level headed Hermione had once successfully broken into Gringotts

**Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this,**

"Vernon Dursley is not _people_" Lily scowled

**but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.**

**"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

**"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.**

**"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

**"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"**

"It's our government" Alice shrugged. "I expect what it does is somewhat similar to the muggle government"

**"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

**"Why?"**

**"Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."**

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbour wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.**

**Passers-by stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

"Discretion, thy name is Hagrid" Remus sighed, an indulgent smile on his lips

**"Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts?"**

**"Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

**"You'd like one?"**

"Hazel wanted one" Lily put in

"A girl can dream can't she?" Hazel retorted, sticking her tongue out at her twin. "Little Miss Mermaid"

Lily went scarlet

"Go on Sirius" Hazel smiled adjusting her arms slightly as Theo shifted in his sleep

**"Wanted one ever since I was a kid — here we go."**

**They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it,**

"Because that's what it is" Hermione shrugged. "He expected Harry to understand Wizarding currency"

**gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.**

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

**"Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches.**

**Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.**

**"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:**

The adults all took a breath and recited the list which had not changed a bit

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**

**UNIFORM**

**First-year students will require:**

**1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**

**2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**

**4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**

**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**

**COURSE BOOKS**

**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**

**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)by Miranda Goshawk**

**A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot**

**Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling**

**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch**

**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore**

**Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger**

**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander**

"What's the Defence book Padfoot?" James asked. "Assuming the job's still jinxed at this point?"

This last was aimed at Hermione, who nodded smiling wryly

"**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble" **Sirius read. "Has anyone noticed how all the authors of the set books are dodgy puns?"

"Most of them yes" Hermione nodded, condescension dripping from every syllable. "Well done Sirius"

Sirius scowled at her.

"**OTHER EQUIPMENT**

**1 wand**

**1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)**

**1 set of glass or crystal phials**

**1 telescope set**

**1 brass scales**

**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS"**

Once again all of the adults recited the list

**"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.**

**"If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

**Harry had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

**"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

"They've managed well enough since the statute of secrecy was passed" Remus shrugged

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks?**

"Yes" James nodded

**Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up?**

"No" Lily shook her head. "They have no measurable sense of humour"

**If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humour, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.**

**"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it.**

"That's a clever son you've got there Lily" Frank complimented her

Lily blushed, hiding her red cheeks and proud smile behind her son's little head

**Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.**

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

**"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.**

"Oh no" Hermione groaned, hiding her face in her hands.

"What?" James, Lily, Remus, Hazel and Sirius asked at once, all worried for the little Marauder-let they were reading an alternate account of

"You remember me saying Harry hated his fame?" she asked, everyone nodded. "Well, I think he's about to get his first taste of it"

**"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this — can this be —?"**

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.**

"Way to go Hagrid" Sirius slapped his hand to his face

**"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter… what an honour."**

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.**

"My poor baby" Lily lamented

"He's not famous now Lily" Hermione reminded her. "He won't have to go through this"

**"Welcome back, Mr Potter, welcome back."**

**Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.**

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

**"Doris Crockford, Mr Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

**"So proud, Mr Potter, I'm just so proud."**

**"Always wanted to shake your hand — I'm all of a flutter."**

**"Delighted, Mr Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

**"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

"That was Dedalus?" Hazel's eyes widened. "Merlin's beard- what's with the hat? Did he get confunded into thinking it looked good on him?"

**"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"**

**Harry shook hands again and again — Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

"Aww his first fangirl" Alice teased

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

**"Professor Quirrell!"**

"Quirrell?" Alice frowned. "As in Quirinus Quirrell?"

"What?" her husband snorted. "That Ravenclaw you went out with- wasn't he a cocky prat?"

"Yeah" Alice nodded. "Last I heard he left the country because the Death Eaters wanted him"

**said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

**"P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."**

**"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

**"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it.**

**"N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

"Really sounds like Quirrell" Hazel snorted. "Used to be a Dark Arts anorak didn't he?"

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

**"Must get on — lots ter buy. Come on, Harry."**

"Take your time Hagrid" James rolled his eyes, annoyed that their half giant friend had put his son through so much discomfort

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a dustbin and a few weeds.**

**Hagrid grinned at Harry.**

**"Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh — mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

**"Is he always that nervous?"**

**"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first-hand experience… They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag — never been the same since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject **

"Why the heck did Dumbledore hire him then?" Remus shook his head. "Can't have been much of a teacher if he's scared of his own speciality"

"He wasn't" Hermione told her husband and their friends. "We has some shockers; the best of my nineties Defence Professors was in my third year, and the worst my fifth year"

— **now, where's me umbrella?"**

**Vampires? Hags? Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the dustbin.**

**"Three up… two across…" he muttered. "Right, stand back, Harry."**

**He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.**

**The brick he had touched quivered — it wriggled — in the middle, a small hole appeared — it grew wider and wider — a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.**

**"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

"Seems that that's the standard introduction for first timers" Hazel grinned. "Remember Lily?"

Lily nodded. "Who took you Hermione?"

"Professor McGonagall" Hermione told her. "And yes, I got the same welcome"

**He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.**

"Does it?" Frank frowned. "I've never noticed"

No one in the room could verify Harry's claim

"To be fair, Harry's quite observant" Hermione told them. "When he wants to be"

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons — All Sizes — Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver — Self-Stirring — Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.**

**"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes.**

"He's not the only one" Lily admitted. "When we went first time I didn't know where to look first"

Hazel nodded in agreement

**He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, sixteen Sickles an ounce, they're mad…"**

"Wow" Lily breathed, her entirely un-repressed inner potioneer balking at the cost of such a basic ingredient. "That's steep; I've never known them higher than four sickles"

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium — Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand — fastest ever —"**

Lily, Remus and Hermione rolled their eyes as their Quiddich obsessed friends leaned closer to the book in hopes of hearing more about this new Nimbus Broomstick- they were to be disappointed.

**There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon…**

**"Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was—**

**"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

**Enter, stranger, but take heed**

**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**

**For those who take, but do not earn,**

**Must pay most dearly in their turn.**

**So if you seek beneath our floors**

**A treasure that was never yours,**

**Thief, you have been warned, beware**

**Of finding more than treasure there.**

"Listening Hermione?" Remus asked his wife, eyebrow raised

"It was one time Remus" she hissed. "And only because we were under _extreme_ duress"

**"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.**

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

**"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr Harry Potter's safe."**

"Wonder how much his account's grown by" James mused.

All three of the babies had their own vault, set up just after their births with the modest sum of twenty galleons; to be supplemented by the same amount every birthday and Christmas from the Potter Vault- being a minor Harry would only have direct access to his own vault, not to the whole Potter fortune

**"You have his key, sir?"**

**"Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of mouldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. **

"Bet he liked that" Frank smirked. "Not"

**The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

**"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely. "That seems to be in order."**

**"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

**"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.**

**"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

**"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

"He's as curious as both of you" Hermione told James and Lily with a smile. "He hated not knowing what Hagrid took out"

**Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in — Hagrid with some difficulty — and were off.**

"I hate those carts" Lily grumbled

"I haven't forgotten what you did to my trainers back before first year" Hazel told her. "_Scourgify_ was one of the first spells I learned because of you"

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late— they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

**"I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

**"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."**

**He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.**

"Sounds familiar" Hazel smirked at her twin. "Doesn't it Lils"

Lily stuck her tongue out at her

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

"There's your answer Prongs" Remus smiled.

**"All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's — it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking. How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep? And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London. Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.**

**"The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

**"One speed only," said Griphook.**

"Lies" James huffed. "They'll go faster if you ask 'em"

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.**

Lily let out a sigh of relief. "Merlin, thank you"

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

"Ooh high security" Hazel trilled

**"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

**"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

**"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.**

**"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.**

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least — but at first he thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor.**

**Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.**

**"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

Hazel shot a look at her twin, who glowered back

**One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life — more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

**"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts."**

**He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

"I met Spitfire in there" Remus put in. "Second best day of that summer"

"Only the second?" Hazel pouted, pretending to look hurt. "Merlin Moony I'm insulted"

"Considering I thought I would never go to Hogwarts until the day before" Remus retorted

"I'm sorry Remus" Hazel reached over and squeezed her best friend's hand. "You know I was only joking"

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.**

**"Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here — another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."**

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes.**

"And enter Draco" Hermione muttered

"Lucius and Narcissa's kid?" Sirius raised one eyebrow at the time traveller

Hermione nodded- since arriving in 1977 besides getting rid of Voldemort she'd also managed to convince Narcissa Black and Lucius Malfoy to side with the light; they'd been incredibly useful spies in the war.

**Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.**

**"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"**

"Sounds friendly enough" Alice mused

**"Yes," said Harry.**

**"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

"Seems you spoke too soon Ali" Frank put an arm around his wife's shoulder

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

**"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

**"No," said Harry.**

"He will this time" James muttered, darkly

Lily reached up and kissed her husband's cheek

**"Play Quidditch at all?"**

**"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

"A Harry who didn't know what Quiddich is" Hermione murmured. "Seems unnatural"

James looked at her curiously

"You'll find out" she assured him

**"I do — Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

**"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

**"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been — imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"**

**"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.**

**"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.**

**"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."**

**"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

**"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

"Hopefully Lucius and Narcissa will raise him better this time" Lily commented, the others nodded in agreement

**"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage — lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

**"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.**

**"Do you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

**"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

**"Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they?"**

**"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

**"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"**

"Don't tell him Harry!" Sirius interrupted himself

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.**

"That's a fast seamstress" Hazel remarked

**"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.**

**Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

"Yum" James smiled

"It was his favourite too, until he tried Butterbeer fudge" Hermione told him

"My favourite" Hazel grinned, pleased that she had something she shared with her nephew even in this lifetime where she'd died a toddler

**"What's up?" said Hagrid.**

**"Nothing," Harry lied.**

**They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed colour as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

James opened his mouth; Lily clamped her hand over his jaw.

"Not now James" she growled, and nodded to Sirius to continue

**"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know — not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

**"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's. "— and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in —"**

**"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were — he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles — look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

"If you could pick your family…" Hazel shook her head, exchanging a glance with her twin sister

**"So what is Quidditch?"**

**"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like — like football in the Muggle world — everyone follows Quidditch — played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls — sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

"Hardly" James muttered as his wife lowered her hand

**"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

**"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but —"**

**"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Harry gloomily.**

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."**

"Oh what a lie" Hermione sniffed. "There've been plenty of dark witches and wizards to leave Hogwarts from all four houses"

**"Vol-, sorry —You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

**"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

**They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Counter-curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

"And another dodgy pun"

"Just read Padfoot" Hazel encouraged her husband, adjusting the stirring Theo in her arms to try and coax him to keep sleeping, Neville had fallen asleep too, just leaving Harry to succumb to the pull of nap-time

**"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

Everybody chuckled.

"There's the marauder in him" James beamed

Lily groaned; knowing that in _this _time line her son would grow up around all four of the marauders- while in Hermione's original time line Harry hadn't learned of the marauders until his third year

**"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

**Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either**

"Gold cauldrons have a nasty habit of melting" Lily put in

**("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling. While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).**

"Merlin's beard!" Lily gasped, startling Harry who had been falling into a doze on her lap; as she soothed him she heard Hazel ask.

"Hermione, was there a recession in the late eighties?"

"I don't know" Hermione shrugged

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.**

**"Just yer wand left — A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present."**

**Harry felt himself go red.**

**"You don't have to —"**

"Aww" the four witches cooed

The four wizards smiled at each other; Hagrid would be receiving a very large, very expensive Christmas present this year

**"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at— an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze.**

"Why doesn't he use allergy potions?" Hazel asked- she sympathised with him though, being similarly affected by the domestic feline. "They're safe for giant consumption"

**I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'."**

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

They all chuckled at that

**"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now — only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand… this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.**

"Me too" the three muggle born witches chorused, grinning

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.**

"I used to think that was the Elder Wand" James remarked

"Nah I reckon it's Mr Ollivander's" Hazel argued.

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

"There's the muggle upbringing" Remus, the half-blood of their group put in. "My mum mentioned that the day I got my wand- dad and I didn't know what she was talking about"

**"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

**"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

**"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

**Mr Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

**"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favoured it — it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."**

**Mr Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

**"And that's where…"**

**Mr Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.**

"Always thought that he had personal space issues" Remus mumbled, he'd had the same treatment, Ollivander had insisted on touching Greyback's bite mark on his shoulder

**"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands… well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…"**

**He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.**

**"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again… Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

**"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

**"Er — yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

**"But you don't use them?" said Mr Ollivander sharply.**

**"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

"Yeah, like Mr Ollivander's going to believe that" Frank snorted

**"Hmmm," said Mr Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now — Mr Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket.**

"Hate that thing" Hazel sniffed. "How does the width between your nostrils affect your wand choice"

**"Which is your wand arm?"**

**"Er — well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.**

**"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

**Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.**

**"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave."**

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.**

**"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try —"**

**Harry tried — but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr Ollivander.**

**"No, no — here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."**

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

**"Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere — I wonder, now — yes, why not — unusual combination — holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers.**

**He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework,**

"Mine did that" Sirius remarked. "Mummy-dearest was not happy"

"When was your mother ever happy with you?" Hazel asked her husband

"Not very often" he admitted. "Even before I got sorted into Gryffindor, Reggie was golden boy"

**throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well… how curious… how very curious…"**

**He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious… curious…"**

**"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious?"**

**Mr Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

**"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather — just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother — why, its brother gave you that scar."**

"The connection between the two wands helped him a lot later on" Hermione told the room at large. "Even before he knew about the prophecy"

**Harry swallowed.**

**"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember… I think we must expect great things from you, Mr Potter… After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."**

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr Ollivander too much.**

"He's not good with kids" Lily shrugged. "I didn't like him much myself- what about you Haze?"

"Nope" she replied. "He creeped me out"

**He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr Ollivander bowed them from his shop.**

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

**"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

Sirius' stomach growled at the mention of food.

"I'll fix some food after we finish the chapter." Hermione promised

Sirius carried on reading, with a large smile on his face

**He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

**"You all right, Harry? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

"Last night he discovered that he's a wizard" Lily sniffed. "And a famous one at that- it's a lot for one eleven year old to take"

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life — and yet — he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.**

**"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr Ollivander… but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things? I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry — I mean, the night my parents died."**

"Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself" James quoted. "Say his name Harry"

Harry lay snoozing on his mother's lap, sucking his thumb

**Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

**"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts — I did — still do, 'smatter of fact."**

"He considered it his home" Hermione smiled

"Not surprising" Remus put in. "Considering what he'd grown up with"

**Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.**

**"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts," he said. "First o' September — King's Cross — it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me…. See yeh soon, Harry."**

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"That's the chapter" Sirius announced. "Lunch?"

"Sirius" Hazel groaned

Hermione rolled her eyes and moved to the kitchen

~V~


	7. Public Vote

"You know what" Hermione remarked, returning from the kitchen. "I've decided it might be easier if we order a pizza"

There were nods of agreement and requests for both margarita and peperoni.

She nodded and crossed to the phone to place an order for four twelve inch pizzas; two margarita and two peperoni with a side order of chips for the boys when they woke from their naps.

Lily had been sat, lost in thought; but she spoke up as Hermione returned to her seat beside Remus.

"Do you think we should include Petunia in this?"

"What?" the other members of their little reading group chorused

"Lily, are you crazy?" Hazel asked. "That woman has been a bitch to us since we were nine years old. Why should we include her in this?"

"Here me out" Lily protested. "Seeing how Petunia and her family treated Harry in Hermione's old time line I think it might be beneficial if we tried to patch up our relationship with her."

The others all looked a little sceptical

"Look; I'm as angry at her and Vernon as the rest of you- but maybe giving her the opportunity to learn more about our world might help her to get over her grudge against us." she reasoned. "I'm not suggesting we invite the walrus, just Petunia"

"I suppose she didn't _hate _us until she met the hungry, hungry hippo" Hazel admitted. "And it might do her son good to interact with his cousins"

"And Neville" Alice put in, able to see the benefit of the muggle boy spending time with the three boys

"Well obviously" Lily nodded, smiling

"Might be a good idea" Remus shrugged. "I mean, she already knows something about our world. As long as she keeps what she learns secret."

"Then there's Dudley" Hermione put in. "I think Harry said something about him changing his view of Harry later on- maybe we _should _at least invite your sister to read with us."

"I don't think so Lily flower" James shook his head. "Why should we? All through this book she's been a real cow to Harry, just because she's jealous of the fact that _we've_ got magic"

"People change James" Frank put in. "It's possible that your sister in law might change her tune if we include her in what we're doing"

Sirius remained silent- he wasn't sure where he stood on this issue. On the one hand Prongs was right- Spitfire had far more complaints about her muggle sister than she had compliments. However, this was something he wished he had the chance to do with his own little brother- but Regulus had disappeared before any attempt at reconciliation could be made.

"I think we should try it" he decided. Prongs looked betrayed; however the beaming smile on his wife's face helped him to remain strong in his decision. "Contact her with the offer of joining us that way if she refuses you can't say you didn't _try_ to reconcile with her"

"Mione" Lily smiled, proud of her wizarding brother in law. "May I use your phone?"

~V~

* * *

**_Well then my friends, the choice is yours: should I include Petunia and Dudley in this story? Let me know_**


	8. The Journey

_**Well, you guys voted, and the result was resounding yes on including Petunia and Dudley.**_

_**Please, voters who said no, don't give up on my story.**_

_**Thank you to everyone who's reviewed and or added my story to their favourites and/or follows lists**_

* * *

_**~The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters~**_

Just yesterday if you had told Mrs Petunia Dursley of number four Privet Drive that she would be willingly entering a house full of wizards with her one year old son, she would have laughed and slammed the door in your face. Now however she stood outside of a rather nice little house which would be the last place she'd expect _freaks _to inhabit. She raised her hand and rapped on the blue painted wooden door.

The door was opened moments later to reveal Lily, dressed in a green jumper and blue jeans; her dark red hair pulled into a high pony tail.

"Hello Petunia," she smiled. "Come on in and meet everybody."

Petunia followed her green eyed sister into the house wondering not only who _everybody_ was, but just what she was letting herself in for.

The living room she was led into was very normal; except for the distinct lack of television and the owl perched in one corner of the room. Then she noticed the people; her two sisters and six other adults- four men and two women. She recognized Black and Potter, her two brothers in law, and the scarred man whom she recalled was named Remus something; but the three she didn't know. On the carpet by the fireplace sat three boys of around Dudley's age: a red haired boy with blue eyes who must be Hazel's son; a messy raven haired boy with green eyes, Lily's boy; and the other had thick brown hair and a chubby round face. Looking at her two little nephews caused a twinge of something in the pit of her belly; something uncomfortable.

"Petunia," Hazel began. "You remember Sirius Black, James Potter and Remus Lupin. And these are Hermione Lupin, Remus' wife and Frank and Alice Longbottom."

"Down on the floor are; my son, Harry," Lily continued. "Hazel and Sirius' son, Theo; and Frank and Alice' son, Neville. Guys, meet Petunia."

"Hello," Petunia nodded, keeping her tone polite. "Petunia Dursley and this is my son Dudley."

Black snorted

Hazel swatted her husband. "Behave Padfoot." she hissed

"I assume you're wondering why you were invited here," Hermione remarked. When Petunia nodded the brown curly haired witch began to spin a tale about falling back in time and changing the future. Then going on to tell her how they'd been sent a selection of books detailing the world that she had come from.

"Am I in these books?" she asked. "Is that why you asked me here?"

"Admittedly yes," Remus nodded. "In my wife's original time line there was no Hazel and James and Lily died so you were left to raise Harry."

"And you did a pretty poor job of it," Sirius growled

"You and Vernon tried to stamp Harry's magic out of him," James remarked, glowering

"Stamp…?" Petunia gasped. "We didn't hurt him did we?"

Yes she was jealous of her sisters' magic but she'd never go so far as to hurt a child.

"Would you like to read the next chapter?" Alice asked, politely. "Dudley can play with the boys."

"Oh," Petunia blinked. "Would you mind if I just listened for now?"

"I'll read then," Lily volunteered.

Frank took out his wand and waved it. A comfortable looking arm chair appeared. "Would you care to sit down?"

'_They're very accommodating_' Petunia thought sitting down. Dudley was occupying himself with a selection of building blocks.

Lily opened the book a few chapters in and began. **"The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters"**

**Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.**

Petunia bit her lip- what had she and Vernon done to the boy?

**True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room,**

Petunia's brow puckered at that, what had happened there?

**while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him — in fact, they didn't speak to him at all. Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty.**

"Cupboard?" Petunia asked, tentatively; it was the most alarming of the things which she and Vernon had apparently put Lily's son through

"Until he got his Hogwarts letter you and your husband made my son live in the cupboard under the stairs." Lily told her

**Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while.**

**Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company. He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in A History of Magic.**

"Now there's a cure for insomnia," Sirius remarked, dryly

Lily caught her older sister's puzzled look. "History of Magic is _the_ most boring of the core subjects that Hogwarts teaches- tragically it's compulsory until fifth year."

**His school books were very interesting. He lay on his bed reading late into the night, Hedwig swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice.**

"Things must be bad if you're refusing to clean because of him," Hazel teased

Petunia glared at her

Lily hid a smile behind her hand

**Every night before he went to sleep, Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper he had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first.**

Petunia noticed her sisters and their friends exchange wry looks- she knew the twins used to count down the days until 1st September too- apparently they weren't the only ones

**On the last day of August he thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.**

Sirius sniggered

**"Er — Uncle Vernon?"**

**Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.**

**"Er — I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to — to go to Hogwarts."**

**Uncle Vernon grunted again.**

"Didn't know Troll was a language spoken by Muggles," James remarked, his face completely straight but his eyes laughing

"It's not." Petunia informed him

"Tuney, he's joking," Lily told her. "You know Hazel and the boys like a laugh."

**"Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?"**

**Grunt. Harry supposed that meant yes.**

"Apparently Harry speaks troll too," Remus chuckled

Hermione shoved him

**"Thank you."**

**He was about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.**

**"Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"**

Petunia didn't want to say anything, but she thought her husband had a point- she had wondered why a school of magic had a train

"Magic carpets are illegal," Hermione told her. "And the train is a way for new muggle borns to start adjusting to the Wizarding world."

"Oh,"

**Harry didn't say anything.**

**"Where is this school, anyway?"**

"Scotland." Sirius and James chorused

**"I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.**

**"I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read.**

**His aunt and uncle stared.**

"What are you playing at Petunia?" Hazel glared at her. "You know about platform nine and three-quarters."

Petunia couldn't answer her. She knew that neither of her sisters would not accept the truth; as simple as it was; that she preferred to pretend that she knew nothing of their world.

**"Platform what?"**

**"Nine and three-quarters."**

**"Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters."**

**"It's on my ticket."**

**"Barking," said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."**

**"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.**

**"Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."**

The Marauders, Hermione, Frank and Alice laughed- Lily covered her mouth with her hands to hide her smirk

"Tail?" Petunia shrieked. "Why has my son got a tail?"

"Because your husband annoyed a very loyal only partially trained wizard," Frank told her, fighting to stop laughing. "By insulting Dumbledore in front of him."

Petunia made a mental note never to insult Professor Dumbledore

**Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. He got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes — **

"I had to…" Sirius mumbled

**he'd change on the train. He checked his Hogwarts list yet again to make sure he had everything he needed, saw that Hedwig was shut safely in her cage, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up.**

**Two hours later, Harry's huge, heavy trunk had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry, and they had set off.**

"_MINE_!" Dudley screamed suddenly, as something made of fabric ripped audibly

All eyes in the room snapped to the four boys, Neville sat holding the furry leg of a teddy bear; the larger Muggle boy across from him sat squeezing the stuffing out of the rest of the bear. Harry and Theo hugged their favourite teddy (a stuffed stag and dog respectively) for fear of the new comer taking them too.

Alice rose and wrestled the bear off Dudley and took the leg off Neville then with a flick of her wand she repaired the toy before banishing it to Neville's baby bag. The wailing Dudley crawled over to his mother who picked him up and cuddled him close.

"That bear is Nev's favourite toy," Frank told her, a little apologetically. "Little guy gets a bit… _possessive_ of it. Normally he's very good at sharing."

Petunia bit her lip; Dudley had never spent any time socializing with other babies, and he didn't know how to share. She didn't work so Vernon had scoffed at her idea of sending him to a Day Nursery, just a few days a week.

Lily took advantage of the silence which had descended to read on.

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. Uncle Vernon dumped Harry's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for him. Harry thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.**

**"Well, there you are, boy. Platform nine — platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"**

"Thanks for bringing _him_ into the family" Hazel remarked

**He was quite right, of course. There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.**

**"Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. Harry turned and saw the Dursleys drive away. All three of them were laughing.**

Petunia bit her lip she didn't like what she apparently become. Had her jealousy really brought her so low?

**Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was he going to do? He was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig. He'd have to ask someone. He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters.**

**The guard had never heard of Hogwarts**

"Well of course not" Remus put in. "He's a Muggle isn't he"

**and when Harry couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in, he started to get annoyed, as though Harry was being stupid on purpose. Getting desperate, Harry asked for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters. Harry was now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, he had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and he had no idea how to do it; he was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and a large owl.**

"They always forget to tell Muggle borns" Hermione shook her head. "If it weren't for Neville and your mother, Frank, I wouldn't have managed it"

Hazel and Remus exchanged a glance. Remus had been the one who had helped her and Lily find their way onto the platform.

**Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley.**

**He wondered if he should get out his wand and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten.**

"I wouldn't" Sirius put in

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

**"— packed with Muggles, of course —"**

**Harry swung round. The speaker was a plump woman who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair.**

"Molly," Lily sighed. "Thank goodness"

**Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry's in front of him — and they had an owl.**

**Heart hammering, Harry pushed his cart after them. They stopped and so did he, just near enough to hear what they were saying.**

**"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.**

"You'd think after seven years of Hogwarts and six boys, the youngest of which is Harry's age, she'd remember the platform number, wouldn't you?" Alice rolled her eyes, as she hefted Neville onto her lap.

"Who is this Molly?" Petunia asked

"Molly Weasley, nee Prewitt" Alice replied. "She's my cousin"

**"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand, "Mum, can't I go…"**

"All younger siblings ask that" Sirius chuckled, fondly

Hazel took her husband's hand and squeezed it

"I had a younger brother" he told Petunia, catching her questioning look. "We were close as kids but we drifted."

"Being sorted into rival houses will do that." Lily put in

**"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."**

**What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten.**

**Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it— but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.**

**"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.**

**"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"**

The Marauders exchanged a glance, all four smirking; the Fred and George Weasley were currently three years old and already showed signs of giving _them_ a run for their pranking money.

**"Sorry, George, dear."**

**"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went.**

Sirius and James snickered.

"Honestly Molly," Hazel chuckled. "Call yourself their mother?"

**His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone — but how had he done it? Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier he was almost there — and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.**

**There was nothing else for it.**

**"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.**

**"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."**

**She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.**

Hermione smirked, knowing that she would be introduced soon. She doubted the description of her; which would be from Harry's viewpoint, would be overly flattering; given how stuffy she'd been in her first two months at Hogwarts.

**"Yes," said Harry. "The thing is — the thing is, I don't know how to"**

**"How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry nodded.**

**"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."**

**"Er — okay," said Harry.**

**He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. It looked very solid.**

**He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble — leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run — the barrier was coming nearer and nearer — he wouldn't be able to stop — the cart was out of control — he was a foot away — he closed his eyes ready for the crash —**

**It didn't come… he kept on running… he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts' Express, eleven o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it, He had done it.**

"Seems like a typical muggle born reaction." Frank mused, looking to the three Muggle borns in the room; they nodded in confirmation.

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.**

Petunia couldn't not smile; she recalled her first and only time she'd been on platform 9 ¾. She'd been thirteen at the time and had only been there because their parents had insisted. From her nephew's description it hadn't changed in twenty years.

**The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. Harry pushed his cart off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

**"Oh, Neville," he heard the old woman sigh.**

Alice hid behind her one year old son, in an attempt to hide her blush. Frank, Lily, Hermione and the Marauders all laughed. Petunia was puzzled.

"From the sound of things Nev's inherited his mother's clumsiness." Frank told her; leaning over to kiss his wife's cheek.

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.**

**"Give us a look, Lee, go on."**

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.**

Petunia shuddered, she hated creepy-crawlies

**Harry pressed on through the crowd until he found an empty compartment near the end of the train. He put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the steps but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.**

Petunia watched as every other adult in the room winced simultaneously. Hogwarts trunks must have been very heavy.

**"Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins he'd followed through the barrier.**

**"Yes, please," Harry panted.**

**"Oi, Fred! C'mere and help!"**

**With the twins' help, Harry's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.**

**"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.**

**"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.**

"Oh dear," Hermione murmured

**"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you —?"**

**"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.**

**"What?" said Harry.**

**"Harry Potter." chorused the twins.**

**"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am."**

Everybody laughed, even Petunia; Harry's reaction was _so_ Lily.

**The two boys gawked at him, and Harry felt himself turning red.**

**Then, to his relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.**

**"Fred? George? Are you there?"**

**"Coming, Mum."**

**With a last look at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.**

**Harry sat down next to the window where, half hidden, he could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.**

"Ooh" Hazel put in, "There's his repressed inner Marauder."

**Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.**

**"Ron, you've got something on your nose."**

**The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.**

**"Mum— geroff" He wriggled free.**

**"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.**

More laughter erupted from the group.

**"Shut up," said Ron.**

**"Where's Percy?" said their mother.**

**"He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, and Harry noticed a red and gold badge on his chest with the letter P on it.**

**"Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves —"**

"It's hard to imagine little Percy Weasley calling Molly _mother,_" Lily said, but not unkindly. "He's five and hasn't stopped calling her _mama_ yet."

**"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."**

James and Sirius smirked

**"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin. "Once —"**

**"Or twice —"**

**"A minute —"**

**"All summer —"**

"Love your nephews Al," Hazel managed to announce through the laughter at the Weasley twins' antics

**"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.**

**"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.**

**"Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term — send me an owl when you get there."**

"What happened?" Frank frowned. "I know they have seven kids but Prewitt is an _old_ name- they have a fortune."

"Unless Muriel's still alive," his wife looked to Hermione for confirmation

Hermione nodded.

"Who's Muriel?" Petunia asked

"My aunt," Alice explained. "She never did like Arthur, but I can't believe she'd withhold money from her own blood."

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.**

**"Now, you two — this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've — you've blown up a toilet or —"**

**"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."**

"No," Sirius grinned. "That was us."

"Only because Fabien put us up to it though," Remus assured the non-Marauders

**"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."**

**"It's not funny.**

"Yes it is," Sirius said in a sing-song voice.

"Mouth is open Padfoot," Lily purred, dangerously. "Should be shut,"

**And look after Ron."**

**"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

**"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.**

**"Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"**

"Discretion isn't one of the Weasley family's strong points." Hermione said, unable to fight her fond smile.

**Harry leaned back quickly so they couldn't see him looking.**

**"You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?"**

**"Who?"**

**"Harry Potter!"**

**Harry heard the little girl's voice. "Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, eh please…"**

"His first fan girl already," Remus glanced at James, smirking. "You didn't get your first until second year, did you James?"

James stuck his tongue out, petulantly

**"You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is he really, Fred? How do you know?"**

**"Asked him. Saw his scar. It's really there — like lightning."**

**"Poor dear — no wonder he was alone, I wondered. He was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."**

**"Never mind that, do you think he remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"**

**Their mother suddenly became very stern.**

**"I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."**

"Thank you Molly," Lily smiled

**"All right, keep your hair on."**

**A whistle sounded.**

**"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.**

**"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."**

**"We'll send you a Hogwarts' toilet seat."**

The Marauders all chuckled

**"George!"**

**"Only joking, Mum."**

**The train began to move. Harry saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.**

**Harry watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Harry felt a great leap of excitement. He didn't know what he was going to — but it had to be better than what he was leaving behind.**

Petunia squirmed in her seat.

**The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.**

**"Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry. "Everywhere else is full."**

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked.**

"I'll bet Harry hated that." Remus addressed his wife.

Hermione nodded

**Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.**

**"Hey, Ron."**

**The twins were back.**

"Yay," James and Sirius cheered

**"Listen, we're going down the middle of the train — Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."**

**"Right," mumbled Ron.**

**"Harry," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."**

**"Bye," said Harry and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.**

**"Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.**

"Honestly Ronald," Hermione murmured, putting her face in her hand

**Harry nodded.**

**"Oh — well, I thought it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," said Ron. "And have you really got — you know…"**

**He pointed at Harry's forehead.**

**Harry pulled back his fringe to show the lightning scar. Ron stared.**

Hermione and Lily both rolled their eyes

**"So that's where You-Know-Who —?"**

**"Yes," said Harry, "but I can't remember it."**

**"Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.**

**"Well — I remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."**

**"Wow," said Ron. He sat and stared at Harry for a few moments, then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.**

**"Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found him.**

**"Er — Yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

"Cyril is a squib," Alice nodded. "But he's not an accountant- he's training to be a doctor."

"What's a squib?" Petunia asked

"The opposite of a Muggle born," Hazel told her sister. "People born to magical families who don't have magic themselves."

**"So you must know loads of magic already."**

**The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.**

"No," Hermione shook her head. "In my old life the Malfoys were awful."

**"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"**

**"Horrible — well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."**

"I'm sorry Lily, James." Petunia looked from one to the other

"A different world," Lily shrugged. "There's nothing to forgive."

**"Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch.**

"So was I," James announced, importantly then yelped.

Lily had elbowed him.

**Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.**

**You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat." Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep.**

The Marauders, Lily and Hermione growled. Frank and Alice were glowering.

"What?" Petunia frowned

"You'll find out in third book," Hermione told her

**"His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff — I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Ron's ears went pink. He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window.**

**Harry didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, he'd never had any money in his life until a month ago, and he told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.**

"Git," James hissed

Petunia said nothing, hoping her messy haired brother in law was referring to Ron and not her.

**"… and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort —"**

**Ron gasped.**

There was mass eye rolling at that.

**"What?" said Harry.**

**"You said You-Know-Who's name!" said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people —"**

**"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Harry, "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn… I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."**

"Oh Harry," Lily sighed

"Mumm?" Harry looked up her questioningly

"Nothing sweetheart," she smiled

Harry reached up for her to pick him up; but it was James who moved to lift him up

**"You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."**

"Aww," Hermione smiled. "I can't believe I missed that rare moment of insight from Ron"

"Wasn't he your boyfriend at one point?" Remus asked his wife.

"Briefly," Hermione nodded. "But things didn't work out after war ended."

**While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.**

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the trolley, dears?"**

**Harry, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to his feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Harry went out into the corridor.**

**He had never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys, **

Petunia squirmed again.

**and now that he had pockets rattling with gold and silver he was ready to buy as many Mars Bars as he could carry— but the woman didn't have Mars Bars. What she did have were Bettie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs. Pumpkin Pasties, Cauldron Cakes, Licorice Wands, and a number of other strange things Harry had never seen in his life. Not wanting to miss anything, he got some of everything and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.**

"That's gone up," James remarked. "Will there be a recession in the late eighties or something?"

As everyone in the room knew that the time traveller hadn't entered the Wizarding world until the early nineties, had no way of knowing; this question was clearly rhetorical.

**Ron stared as Harry brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.**

**"Hungry, are you?"**

**"Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.**

**Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef…"**

"She's got five under aged kids," Alice remarked. "Cut her some slack."

**"Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on —"**

**"You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."**

**"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, sitting there with Ron, eating their way through all Harry's pasties, cakes, and sweets (the sandwiches lay forgotten).**

"Always the way," Remus smiled fondly. "Remember first year?"

James and Hazel, who had been present for that moment, smiled too.

**"What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not really frogs, are they?" He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.**

**"No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."**

**"What?"**

Petunia was wondering that herself.

**"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know — Chocolate Frogs have cards, inside them, you know, to collect — famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

"That's nothing," Remus scoffed. "When I was eleven I had nine hundred and twenty four"

"Ah Moony," Sirius put in. "But not many people share your chocolate obsession."

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and moustache.**

**Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.**

**"So this is Dumbledore!" said Harry.**

**"Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!" said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa — thanks —"**

**Harry turned over his card and read:**

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS**

**Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.**

**Harry turned the card back over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared.**

**"He's gone!"**

Petunia noticed her sisters and Hermione exchange a wry glance.

**"Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," said Ron.**

**"He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her… do you want it? You can start collecting."**

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped. "Help yourself," said Harry. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

**"Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "Weird!"**

**Harry stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave him a small smile. Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the Druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.**

**"You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavour, they mean every flavour — you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate and peppermint and marmalade, but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. George reckons he had a bogey-flavoured one once."**

"Come back when you've had ear wax, now _they're_ horrible," Said Hazel, unimpressed. "The amount of people, even after leaving Hogwarts I've seen eating bogeys straight from the nostril…"

Remus, Sirius and James snorted.

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.**

**"Bleaaargh — see? Sprouts."**

**They had a good time eating the Every Flavour Beans. Harry got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end of a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.**

**The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.**

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.**

Alice dropped a kiss on her son's head.

**"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"**

**When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"**

"Sounds familiar," Frank said with an indulgent smile

His wife blushed hotly and hid her red face behind Neville.

"Sorry sweetie," she murmured

**"He'll turn up," said Harry.**

**"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…"**

**He left.**

**"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. **

The sound of grinding teeth met this statement

**Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."**

Petunia looked around; the looks on her companions' faces stated that the boy in the book didn't know how right he was

**The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.**

**"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…"**

Hermione smirked

**He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.**

"Molly let him go to school with a wand like _that?_" Alice asked incredulous

**"Unicorn hair's nearly poking out. Anyway —"**

**He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him. She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.**

**"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.**

Hermione's cheeks had gone scarlet.

Petunia looked at the brown haired witch, puzzled. Hermione didn't strike her as bossy; her teeth weren't large and her hair fell in glossy curls down her back.

"My teeth got sorted when I was fifteen," Hermione announced, catching and interpreting her gaze. "And my hair was bushy before an old friend insisted on trying to straighten it- the spell went wrong and _this_ grew in after I took a hair restoring potion"

**"We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.**

**"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then."**

**She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.**

**"Er — all right." He cleared his throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."**

To Petunia this seemed like a perfectly decent spell; but from the other adults' laughter who ever had told Ron that spell was having him on

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.**

**"Are you sure that's a real spell?" said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it? I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" She said all this very fast.**

"How long were you at Hogwarts before you had that wand extracted from up your arse?" Sirius asked

Hermione threw a cushion at him but answered his question. "Two months"

**Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.**

**"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.**

**"Harry Potter," said Harry.**

**"Are you really?" said Hermione.**

**"I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books, for background reading, and you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."**

Hermione was blushing again. "Merlin, I sound like I'm talking to a portrait"

Petunia frowned, puzzled. How could you talk to a portrait? Unless the talked in the Wizarding world

**"Am I?" said Harry, feeling dazed.**

**"Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what house you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best;**

A ripple of ascent went round all of the other adults. It would take an idiot not to work out that all eight of them must have been in the same house

**I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad… Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."**

**And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.**

**"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.**

Hermione flinched, staring at the book. "Did he actually say that?"

"Why would I lie Mione?" Lily asked, softly

"Merlin," Hermione breathed. "I know it took a while before we made friends but that's just mean."

"You ok love?" Remus asked, squeezing her hand

"Yeah," she nodded. "It's just a surprise."

**He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell — George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."**

"Those twins..." James grinned

"Are brilliant," Sirius finished

"Careful boys" Hermione cautioned. "You're beginning to sound like them"

"Cool." They chorused

**"What house are your brothers in?" asked Harry.**

**"Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again. "Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not. I don't suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

**"That's the house Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"**

"It's so weird to here Harry not say his name" Hermione shook her head. "He was never afraid to say it"

"That's my boy," James beamed, proudly

**"Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.**

**"You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Harry, trying to take Ron's mind off houses.**

**"So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?" Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.**

Petunia was loathe to admit it, but she was wondering that herself

"All sorts of things" Hazel shrugged. "It's a big ol' Wizarding world out there."

**"Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," said Ron.**

"He was a curse breaker," Hermione clarified

**"Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the Daily Prophet, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles — someone tried to rob a high security vault."**

There was a chorus of "_What?_" from the other adults, well minus Hermione.

**Harry stared.**

**"Really? What happened to them?"**

**"Nothing, that's why it's such big news. They haven't been caught.**

"The first of only two successful Gringotts break-ins" Hermione murmured, but wouldn't clarify when pushed to.

**My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. 'Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."**

**Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.**

"Fear of a name," Hermione recited. "Only encourages fear of the thing itself."

**"What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.**

**"Er — I don't know any." Harry confessed.**

**"What!" Ron looked dumbfounded. "Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world —" And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money. He was just taking Harry through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.**

Hermione groaned

**Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.**

"Typical behaviour" the time traveller muttered

**"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"**

**"Yes," said Harry. He was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.**

**"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Harry was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

"Who does he think he is," Petunia heard herself scoff. "James Bond?"

Eight pairs of eyes stared at her.

"Tuney?" Hazel blinked, disbelief written all over her face. "Was that a joke?"

"I…" she trailed off. "I think so."

"Who's James Bond?" Frank asked

"Fictional Spy" Alice replied, promptly. "I read all of the books one summer"

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

**"Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."**

"Git" Remus growled just as Hermione was mumbling something about a ferret

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."**

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, **

"Don't do it Harry!" Sirius called

"Wha Paffoo?" little Harry asked, turning to face his godfather/uncle

**but Harry didn't take it.**

"Oh thank Merlin,"

**"I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.**

"Lily's temper" James, Hazel and Sirius nodded to each other

Lily pouted, but read on: **Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.**

**"I'd be careful if I were you, Potter," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."**

"Little bastard" Sirius seethed.

**Both Harry and Ron stood up.**

**"Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.**

**"Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?" Malfoy sneered.**

**"Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

**"But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."**

"Brat," Lily frowned

**Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron — Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.**

**Scabbers the rat was hanging off his finger, sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle**

Stunned silence resounded where Petunia would have expected laughter

— **Crabbe and Malfoy backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, all three of them disappeared at once. Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

**"What has been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

**"I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No — I don't believe it — he's gone back to sleep."**

**And so he had.**

"Typical," James muttered

Sirius turned to his wife and kissed her. "Hazel 'Spitfire' Black speaking on behalf of Moony and Prongs I am so glad you're in my life because if you weren't _that_ would have been."

Hazel laughed as Sirius pulled her against his side. "Oh Pads I didn't know you cared"

**"You've met Malfoy before?"**

**Harry explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley.**

**"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side." He turned to Hermione. "Can we help you with something?"**

"Can't actually remember why I back went in there in the first place." Hermione mused. "Must've had a reason though…"

**"You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you? You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"**

**"Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"**

**"All right — I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice.**

"Oh, that was it." Hermione nodded

**"And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"**

Snorts of laughter broke out at that.

**Ron glared at her as she left.**

**Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.**

**He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his trainers underneath them.**

**A voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."**

"Funny how quickly you learn to ignore that" Sirius mused

**Harry's stomach lurched with nerves and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.**

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform. Harry shivered in the cold night air. Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry?"**

**Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads.**

"Remember the guy Vernon annoyed and gave Dudley a tail?" James glanced at Petunia. She nodded. "Well, this is him."

**"C'mon, follow me — any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there. Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

**"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."**

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

"That first sight is unforgettable" Lily sighed, dreamily

**"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Harry and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione.**

"The first time all four of us were together," Sirius commented. "Don't want to think what I'd be if it weren't for that"

"You're getting soft in your old age dear" Hazel told him, pointedly. "You'd still be our Padfoot I'm sure of it"

**"Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then — FORWARD!"**

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead. It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

**"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.**

**"Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.**

"Oh Neville," Alice sighed, bouncing her baby on her lap. He giggled

**"Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands.**

**Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.**

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.**

**"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"**

**Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.**

"And so it begins…" James commented, in an overly ominous voice

"Dun, dun, dunnnn!" Sirius sang, making the three baby wizards giggle.

Dudley just stared at him; he'd been playing on the rug, happy with his own company all this time.

"May I…" Petunia trailed off again. "Could I read next?"

"Of course," Lily nodded, handing her the book

"The next chapter's called. The Sorting Hat."


	9. The Sorting Hat

**_Hello again friends :)_**

**_Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed/followed/favourited his so far. You guys are awesome :D_**

**_I would like to announce that the prequel to this series has been started although I will not be publishing it until after I have finished this particular story. The prequel is sensitively titled The Butterfly Effect although that may change by the time I come to publish it._**

* * *

**_~The Sorting Hat~_**

Petunia took the book, wondering what she'd missed of the story so far; and if she would get the chance to read the earlier chapters. She wasn't stupid, her sisters and their friends and family members probably didn't have a very high opinion of her right now. Before she began to read, she looked at the witches and wizards, trying not to feel the burgeoning respect for them. She didn't deserve the olive branch they were offering.

"C'mon," Sirius encouraged. "I want to know what Harry, Nev and Mione's sorting was like."

Petunia nodded at her long haired brother in law; gut twisting uncomfortably as she remembered that her husband would call him a hippy freak, and began to read.

**"The Sorting Hat"**The title was puzzling, a hat? Wizards were strange people.

**"The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and Harry's first thought was that this was not someone to cross."**

"Not really, no," Frank interrupted her, shooting a look at Hazel and her husband, Remus and James; all of whom were smirking

"Ah, she's nothing but a pussy cat really," Hazel countered and the other adults burst out laughing.

"What is so funny?" Petunia demanded

"Ah, it's nothing," Hermione shook her head. "The teacher we've just met can turn herself into a cat,"

Petunia nodded, deciding that it would be easier if she just accepted what her fellow readers told her about the magical world. **"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.**

**"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." **

"She's Scottish," Sirius announced

**She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it.**

"And then some," Hazel put in. "The entrance hall is _huge._"

**The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.**

**They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. Harry could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here — but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.**

"Worst part of first year," Alice remarked

The other witches and wizards nodded.

**"Welcome to Hogwarts," **Petunia read in her best attempt at a Scottish accent. From the way Sirius was smirking, she probably wasn't doing very well. ** said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room."**

**"The four houses are called Gryffindor,**

The marauders, Hermione and Frank cheered, Lily smiled.

**Hufflepuff,**

Alice cheered

**Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.**

**"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."**

"Did she say that when we were eleven?" Alice frowned

"Yes," Lily nodded

**Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear,**

"Oh Neville," Alice sighed, smiling down at her sleeping son

**and on Ron's smudged nose. Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.**

"You'd think he'd realize that that's not going to work," James remarked ruffling his own hair up

"Potter hair never lies flat." Lily explained to Petunia

**"I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."**

**She left the chamber. Harry swallowed.**

**"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" he asked Ron.**

"Magic hat," Sirius sing-songed quietly, shooting a pointed look had James, who glowered at him. Hazel and Remus sniggered.

"What?" Frank asked.

"First time Sirius ever spoke to the rest of us Marauders," Hazel leaned against her husband who kissed her temple. "It was in response to me asking James if he knew how we were going to be sorted."

**"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."**

"Those twins sound just like Fid and Gabe," Alice smiled

"They are," Hermione nodded. "When I met Gideon and Fabien I had to make an effort not to call them Fred and George."

**Harry's heart gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But he didn't know any magic yet —what on earth would he have to do? He hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived. He looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need.**

Hermione hid her face in Remus's shoulder, but the red running down her neck betrayed her embarrassment. Her husband kissed her hair.

**Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue.**

"Takes after me," James chuckled then explained to his fellow readers who were staring at him. "I once turned the Minister of Magic's hair blue, although to be fair I was seven."

**He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom.**

"Such a pessimist," Lily shook her head. "No offence Tuney but if it comes to it, I'll be asking Hazel to babysit,"

From the sound of things, Petunia couldn't say she'd blame her

**Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air — several people behind him screamed.**

James, Sirius and Hazel cackled, the other former students grinned.

**"What the —?" **Didn't that just echo Petunia's sentiments exactly?

"It's only the ghosts," Remus told her, still grinning

_'Ghosts?'_ Petunia blinked, her sisters had never mentioned that there were ghosts at Hogwarts.

**He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall.**

"Really is amazing how quickly you get used to that," Lily smiled

**Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forge t, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —"**

"They're _still_ having that argument?" Hazel asked with an incredulous look at Hermione who was still slightly red faced.

Hermione nodded.

**"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost — I say, what are you all doing here?"**

**A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.**

**Nobody answered.**

**"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"**

**A few people nodded mutely.**

**"Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."**

"Erm," Petunia frowned. "How does a wizard end up becoming a monk?"

She wasn't overly religious, but the Evans family had attended mass before Lily and Hazel had started Hogwarts and their Priest hadn't been especially friendly towards the concept of witchcraft and wizardry.

"That is a very good question," Alice remarked. "Maybe someone should ask Dumbledore,"

**"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."**

"Minnie's getting quicker," James put in. "I'm sure she wasn't that quick when we were firsties."

"To be fair though Prongsie, Padfoot's pessimism was somewhat distracting." Hazel put in, leaning against her husband's shoulder.

**Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.**

**"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."**

**Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind him, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.**

**Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place.**

"I know that feeling," Lily smiled

**It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in mid air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.**

"Nothing quite prepares you for that first sight of the Great Hall," Lily sighed.

The other former students nodded. Petunia felt a pang of longing to see the place that her sisters and their makeshift family had been educated.

**He heard Hermione whisper, "It's bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts, A History."**

"Bit warm Mione?" Sirius teased

Hermione's face had gone scarlet again; she stuck her tongue out at the long haired wizard.

**It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.**

**Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.**

It was Petunia's turn to blush.

"Honestly Tuney, how will you cope when Dudley's a little older?" Hazel asked her a little too innocently

The witches and wizards laughed, Petunia didn't _think_ there was any malice in the laughter so she carried on reading

**Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it, Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing— noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth — and the hat began to sing:**

Petunia blinked, "A singing hat?"

The other's smiled at her

**"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,**

**But don't judge on what you see,**

**I'll eat myself if you can find**

**A smarter hat than me.**

**You can keep your bowlers black,**

**Your top hats sleek and tall,**

**For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat**

**And I can cap them all.**

**There's nothing hidden in your head**

**The Sorting Hat can't see,**

**So try me on and I will tell you**

**Where you ought to be.**

**You might belong in Gryffindor,**

**Where dwell the brave at heart,**

**Their daring, nerve, and chivalry**

**Set Gryffindors apart;**

**You might belong in Hufflepuff,**

**Where they are just and loyal,**

**Those patient Hufflepuffs are true**

**And unafraid of toil;**

**Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,**

**if you've a ready mind,**

**Where those of wit and learning,**

**Will always find their kind;**

**Or perhaps in Slytherin**

**You'll make your real friends,**

**Those cunning folk use any means**

**To achieve their ends.**

**So put me on! Don't be afraid!**

**And don't get in a flap!**

**You're in safe hands (though I have none)**

**For I'm a Thinking Cap!"**

**The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.**

"Anyone else think it's weird that it doesn't bow to the staff table?" Frank asked

**"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Harry. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."**

"I love those twins," James announced

**Harry smiled weakly. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but he did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; Harry didn't feel brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.**

"Every first year feels that way Harry," Lily said

"Lils, it's a book," Hazel reminded her. "It's not real."

Lily glowered at her

**Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.**

**"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"**

**A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause —**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.**

Alice applauded

**The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.**

**"Bones, Susan!"**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.**

The round faced witch applauded again.

**"Boot, Terry!"**

**"RAVENCLAW!"**

**The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.**

**"Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.**

Cheers rang out from the marauders, Lily, Hermione and Frank

**"Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin. Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot.**

**He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during PE at his old school. He had always been last to be chosen, not because he was no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked him.**

Petunia shifted guiltily

**"Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"**

**"HUFFLEPUFF!"**

Alice clapped again

**Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.**

The ex-Gryffindors cheered again

**"Granger, Hermione!"**

**Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.**

You could toast a marshmallow on Hermione's face, it was so red

**"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat.**

"Go Mione," the Marauders cheered and Remus kissed her

**Ron groaned.**

Hermione stared at the book. "I know he didn't like me to start with but…"

Remus pulled his wife close

**A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train?**

"Oh Harry," Lily sighed.

Baby Harry stirred a little before settling down to sleep again

**When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool.**

**The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR,"**

"That's my boy," Frank beamed

**Neville ran off still wearing it**

"Like mother like son eh Ali?" Frank teased, kissing his wife's temple

**and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."**

**Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"**

**Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.**

**There weren't many people left now. "Moon"…, "Nott"… , "Parkinson"… , then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil"… , then "Perks, Sally-Anne"… , and then, at last —**

**"Potter, Harry!"**

**As Harry stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.**

**"Potter, did she say?"**

**"The Harry Potter?"**

"Merlin," Hermione groaned, concerned for the boy who had been her best friend for seven years. "He must have _hated_ that,"

**The last thing Harry saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him. Next second he was looking at the black inside of the hat. He waited.**

**"Hmm," said a small voice in his ear. "Difficult. Very difficult.**

James stared at the book, as if confused

**Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting… So where shall I put you?"**

**Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.**

**"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that— no? Well, if you're sure — better be GRYFFINDOR!"**

"It wanted to put him in Slytherin?" Sirius frowned, looking at Hermione

"I had no idea" she shrugged helplessly

**Harry heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. He took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. He was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, he hardly noticed that he was getting the loudest cheer yet. Percy the Prefect got up and shook his hand vigorously,**

Sirius and James sniggered

**while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"**

**Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he'd seen earlier. The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.**

"Eugh," Hazel shuddered in sympathy. "Horrible feeling, he did that to me after Caedmon Obrien dumped me back in fifth year."

"You and _Obrien_?" Sirius demanded, staring at his wife. "When did that happen?"

Said wife rolled her eyes. "Just after that which we never speak of,"

Petunia didn't understand that, but Sirius obviously did, because he nodded.

**He could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore. Harry recognized him at once from the card he'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts. Harry spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.**

"How bizarre," Lily frowned

Hermione glowered at the book

**And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table.**

The former Gryffindors cheered again

**"Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. Harry crossed his fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"**

This time, the former Gryffindors' cheers were less enthusiastic

**Harry clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to him.**

**"Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry as "Zabini, Blaise," was made a Slytherin. Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.**

**Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.**

"Don't worry Harry," Sirius said

"Book Padfoot," Remus reminded him. "Prongslet's asleep there,"

Sirius threw a cushion at him

**Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.**

**"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!**

"Four wonderful words, don't you think?" the marauders chorused

**"Thank you!"**

**He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not.**

**"Is he — a bit mad?" he asked Percy uncertainly.**

"A bit?" Lily snorted

**"Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"**

**Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.**

**The Dursleys had never exactly starved Harry, but he'd never been allowed to eat as much as he liked.**

Every adult eye was suddenly fixed upon Petunia, who shifted uncomfortably

**Dudley had always taken anything that Harry really wanted, even if it made him sick.**

"I would never…" The muggle woman trailed off, realizing that that must have been her husband's decision, unless of course after her nephew had come to live under her roof her envy of the twins' magic had led her to put her son above Lily's.

** Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat. It was all delicious.**

**"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.**

**"Can't you—?"**

**"I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."**

**"I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you — you're Nearly Headless Nick!"**

**"I would prefer you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy —" the ghost began stiffly, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan interrupted.**

**"Nearly Headless? How can you be nearly headless?"**

The ex-Gryffindors laughed

"There's always one," Remus grinned

**Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.**

Hazel scoffed. "Bull, he loves it."

**"Like this," he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly.**

**Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces, Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So — new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row! **

"Six?" James blustered

"I'll bet Minnie loved that." Hazel remarked, sarcastically

**The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable — he's the Slytherin ghost."**

**Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.**

**"How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus with great interest.**

**"I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.**

Petunia noticed the wry grin on Hermione's face. The brunette caught her glance and raised her finger to her lips

**When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavor you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jelly, rice pudding…**

**As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart, the talk turned to their families.**

**"I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mum didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him."**

**The others laughed.**

**"What about you, Neville?" said Ron.**

**"Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch,"**

"What happened to us?" Alice asked Hermione. "You told us what happened to Lily and the Marauders- but not Frank and I."

"I'd rather not say," Hermione admitted. "You're not dead though."

"Small favours," Alice huffed, but left it at that

** said Neville, "but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages.**

"The word for that is Squib," Lily explained to Petunia

** My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me— he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned — but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced — all the way down the garden and into the road. **

Frank looked sickened. "I'll be having words with my uncle…"

**They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy. And you should have seen their faces when I got in here — they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."**

**On Harry's other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons ("I do hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult —"; "You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing — ").**

Hermione had gone red again; Petunia had the feeling that the pretty brunette would be blushing a lot as they read these books.

**Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.**

Petunia's eyes widened, she could only think of one person who matched that description.

**It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes — and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead.**

The marauders and Lily looked to Hermione who looked concerned.

"I told you about his connection to Voldemort." She said quietly

Petunia 's eyes widened alarmed at the thought of her nephew having a connection to the man, the _thing,_ that had killed his parents in another world.

**"Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head.**

**"What is it?" asked Percy.**

**"N-nothing."**

**The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look — a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.**

**"Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" he asked Percy.**

**"Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to — everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."**

"He hates kids," Lily groaned. "What's Dumbledore thinking making him teach?"

"It's probably why he wants the Dark Arts post." Hazel mused. "Everyone knows the job's jinxed."

"Jinxed?" Petunia blinked

"Yes," Remus nodded. "There's never, as far as I can remember been a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who's lasted longer than a year."

Petunia blinked again.

**Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.**

**At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again. The hall fell silent.**

**"Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.**

"A galleon says that they haven't changed since we were firsties." Sirius offered

"You're on." James nodded

**"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."**

**Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.**

"That was always us," Hazel recalled fondly

"Ah those were the days," Remus smiled

**"I have also been asked by Mr Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.**

**"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.**

**"And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."**

"Damn," Sirius huffed, snapping his fingers and reluctantly digging in his pocket and pulling out a golden coin which he handed to James

"What did he mean Hermione?" Lily asked

"You'll find out" the time traveller told her.

**Harry laughed, but he was one of the few who did.**

**"He's not serious?" he muttered to Percy.**

**"Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere — the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."**

"Nobody tells us prefects nothing," said Remus, sounding very much like Sirius

The others snorted. Petunia blinked, deciding that this must be normal behaviour

**"And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.**

"Can't say I blame them," Hermione shrugged

**Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.**

**"Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"**

**And the school bellowed:**

And the former students sang:

**"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,**

**Teach us something please,**

**Whether we be old and bald**

**Or young with scabby knees,**

**Our heads could do with filling**

**With some interesting stuff,**

**For now they're bare and full of air,**

**Dead flies and bits of fluff,**

**So teach us things worth knowing,**

**Bring back what we've forgot,**

**just do your best, we'll do the rest,**

**And learn until our brains all rot."**

Lily, Hermione, Frank and Alice sang tunes that Petunia didn't recognize so assumed they must be wizarding tunes. James sang to the tune of Cliff Richard's _Summer Holiday,_ Sirius to _Yellow Submarine,_ Remus sang to what sounded suspiciously like Sammy Davis Jr's _The Candy man can,_ and Hazel, somewhat predictably, Petunia thought, sang to the tune of _Bohemian Rhapsody_- it warmed her to think that Hazel still listened to Queen.

**Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march.**

James laughed. "Remember when we did that in third year?"

Sirius nodded grinning.

**Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.**

**"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"**

Everyone laughed as Sirius made a show of mouthing along, making slightly theatrical gestures with his arms as Petunia read.

"What was that all about?" the oldest reader asked, puzzled.

"Dumbledore ends the Sorting Feast that way every year," James told her. "Sirius does a brilliant impression of him."

As if on cue Sirius rose and put on a somewhat grandfatherly tone of voice. "Ah, music, a magic beyond all we do here! And now, bed time. Off you trot!"

He finished by beckoning towards the door.

Everyone laughed again, even Petunia this time, despite never having met the headmaster.

**The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.**

**A bundle of walking sticks was floating in mid air ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.**

Petunia didn't miss the vaguely evil grins on all four marauders' faces. She gulped and read on:

**"Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves — show yourself."**

**A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.**

**"Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"**

**There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.**

**"Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!"**

**He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.**

**"Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy.**

**Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head.**

"It would be our lad wouldn't it?" Frank mused resignedly.

** They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed.**

**"You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are."**

**At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.**

**"Password?" she said.**

**"Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it — Neville needed a leg up — and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cosy, round room full of squashy armchairs.**

**Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase — they were obviously in one of the towers — they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed.**

**"Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get off, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets."**

"Shouldn't the rat be in a cage?" Petunia asked

"Yes," Hermione nodded her expression dark. "He should,"

**Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once.**

"Ah, takes after me in that respect," James smiled

**Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny.**

"Ok, that's not good," James said, smile changing into a frown

**Harry told the turban he didn't want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it — then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold — there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.**

Petunia looked up wanting to ask whether wizards normally had such dreams, but the fact that the other adults all looked pale and worried answered her question: no, they did not.

**He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn't remember the dream at all.**

"Merlin," Lily exhaled loudly. "I hope that dream really was due to too much food."

"Me too," Hermione nodded. "Fortunately it's not going to happen this time round."

"Alright," Petunia put the book down on her lap. "Who's reading next?"

"I will," Alice reached out to take the book from the muggle woman. "It's called, The potions master."

~V~


	10. The Potions Master

_**Your eyes do not deceive you, this is an actual update; yes **_**already. _I'm as surprised as you are. _****_This chapter just flowed._**

**_Thank you to those of you who reviewed/followed/favourited, since my last update. You guys are awesome._**

**_Please don't expect updates to keep being quite so prompt- but I shall do my best._**

**_Enjoy..._**

* * *

**_~The Potions Master~_**

**"The Potions Master," **Alice began

**"There, look."**

**"Where?"**

**"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."**

"Oh I bet Ron loved that," Frank smirked

Hermione, who hadn't been friends with Ron or Harry, at that point, shrugged. "Doubt either of them were particularly pleased with the whispering."

**"Wearing the glasses?"**

**"Did you see his face?"**

**"Did you see his scar?"**

**Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day.**

"My poor little boy," Lily cooed

"Wonder how they'd feel if they were whispered about as they tried to find their way around a new place," James folded his arms

"C'mon Prongsie, _you'd _have loved it," Sirius shot at him

"Yeah, but _that_ Harry" James retorted gesturing to the book. "Would have hated it wouldn't he?"

**People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring. Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes.**

"I rest my case," said the oldest Potter male, with a smug smile

"No one's arguing with you _Potter,_" Lily told him curtly

**There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot.**

"Wow," Hazel said, letting out a low whistle. "The kid's more observant than we were in first year,"

"At least until we started trying to map the place," James put in

"You tried to map an unplottable building?" Lily snorted. "Bet that went well for you."

Five brow's quirked in Lily's direction: Hazel, Sirius, Hermione, Remus and James'

"What do you mean by unplottable?" Petunia asked, puzzled

Alice looked at her over the book. "It means that the place can't be found on a map."

**The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armour could walk.**

"Of course they can Prongslet." James put in

**The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction,**

There was a chorus of "Good old Nick," from the former Gryffindors

**but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class.**

"Amen to that," Alice nodded

**He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"**

Remus chuckled.

Hermione rounded on her husband. "That was _you?_"

"Yeah," he nodded, rubbing the back of his neck

Hazel, James and Sirius stared at him in blatant disbelief

"That was you?" Sirius repeated, sounding thoroughly impressed. "Really?"

"Really really," Remus nodded, grinning. "Had to do something during second year while you lot were off at Quidditch practice didn't I?"

"Moony," Hazel whipped out her wand, flicked it and a hat flew in from the kitchen and landed upon her dark red hair, she tipped it in her best friend's direction. "I take your hat off to you. I thought the Prewitt twins did that."

**Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch.**

"Oh there's no contest there," Sirius disagreed. "At least Peeves is a laugh."

**Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning.**

"Ouch," Frank winced

**Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor.**

"Double ouch," Frank's wince deepened

**He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.**

"Thank goodness for that," Petunia surprised every, herself included, with that comment

**Filch owned a cat called Mrs Norris, a scrawny, dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's.**

"Ugh, that bloody cat," Hazel winced. "Hate her."

"You hate all cats Spitfire," Remus reminded her

"I'd not have a problem with them if I wasn't allergic to them." Hazel retorted. "Eleven years is plenty of time to pick up a habit. _That _cat however…"

"She's awful," Hermione agreed. "And that comes from a cat lover."

**She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins)**

"And the Marauders," Sirius put in

**and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs Norris a good kick.**

Triumphant grins spread across the Marauders' faces

**And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the lessons themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.**

"Ah first year muggle borns," Sirius smiled condescendingly

"Hey," Lily and Hermione's voices melded in an indignant harmony followed by a yelp from Sirius in response to a sharp smack round the back of his head, courtesy of his wife.

"Sorry," he whimpered, the picture of contrition

"Not mention Harry's half blood," James put in

"Half blood?" Petunia asked

"Because his parents are a mixture of pure blood- someone who's family have had magic for generations, and a muggle or muggle born." Remus explained. "I'm one myself."

"Oh," was the only thing the blonde could think to say in response to that.

**They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets.**

"Thursday mornings were heavenly back in first year," Sirius smiled wistfully. "Our first lesson wasn't until ten o'clock."

**Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Easily the most boring lesson was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.**

"Easily done," Hazel shrugged.

"The stuff Binns is trying to teach is probably quite interesting; it's just him." Lily countered

Hazel just shrugged again

**Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first lesson he took the register, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.**

"That's a bit weird," James mused. "Flitwick started teaching in mum and dad's seventh year; he's more professional than that. Just because Harry's famous,"

"Maybe someone spiked his tea again," Remus suggested. "I wouldn't put it past the Weasley twins, if I didn't know any better I'd say they know about _us,_"

Hermione's only response to her husband's inquisitive look with a phenomenal poker face

**Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first lesson.**

Sirius opened his mouth.

"No Sirius," his wife, who had known him since they were both impressionable eleven year olds, knew exactly what he was going to say. "We all know that the speech won't have changed from when we were first years."

Sirius humphed and settled into a sulk

Theo took that moment to push himself into a sitting position, alerting his mother to the fact that he had finished with his nap. He caught sight of his father's expression and giggled.

"Are you laughing at me little man?" Sirius asked, taking his son from Hazel and blowing a loud wet raspberry on his chubby little belly.

Theo squealed; although mercifully, the other three babies remained asleep

Petunia watched the father-son moment. She couldn't see Vernon playing with Dudley in that way; Vernon preferred to keep his interactions with Dudley to a minimum- generally when they had company.

**"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."**

"Merlin, Alice, you sound just like her." Lily laughed

Alice grinned and bowed

**Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.**

Hermione blushed again.

James smiled. "That was me back in our first year."

**The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.**

"Love those twins," James reiterated

**Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.**

**Friday was an important day for Harry and Ron. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.**

"Now that is a momentous occasion," Frank stated.

Petunia was surprised to note that all of the other readers agreed with his statement

**"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.**

**"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours them — we'll be able to see if it's true."**

If Frank Alice Lily and Hermione saw the look that passed between the Marauders, they didn't remark upon it.

**"Wish McGonagall favoured us," said Harry.**

"Amen to that Prongslet," Sirius said

The other former Gryffindors agreed

**Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.**

**Just then, the post arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.**

"It is a shock if you're not used to it," Hermione remarked, Lily and Hazel nodded in agreement

**Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls.**

"She was a brilliant friend to Harry," Hermione smiled fondly

**This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:**

_**Dear Harry,**_

_**I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?**_

_**I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.**_

_**Hagrid**_

**Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled **_**Yes, please, see you later**_** on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.**

**It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far.**

"I knew it was too much to suppose that Severus would have gotten over that grudge," Lily sighed

James had the good grace to look sheepish

**At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike Harry**

"I don't like the sound of this," Lily announced

— **he hated him.**

Lily groaned, knowing what Severus Snape was like when he decided he didn't like something, or someone.

**Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.**

Petunia shuddered; she didn't like the sound of that

**Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.**

Lily groaned again. Hazel glowered at the book and James and Sirius muttered darkly about how Snape was a _greasy git_

**"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new — celebrity."**

"I still can't believe you managed to stay friends with him for so long Lil," Hazel remarked to her twin

Lily said nothing, she was silently praying that she'd have the strength not to apparate to Severus' apothecary and tear him a new one for something that had never, and would never happen

**Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.**

**"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word — like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.**

Petunia could believe that, Snape had always possessed a certain, disconcerting charisma; well, once he'd stopped wearing his father's old clothes that is

**"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."**

"Well, he's very different than Slughorn," Alice commented, interrupting herself.

Hermione, who had been taught by both potions' masters laughed. "Yes, he certainly is."

**More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.**

Hermione's laughter died as her face went scarlet again

**"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"**

"Merlin, that's NEWT work and he knows it." Hazel protested. "Him and his bloody grudge,"

"Newt?" Petunia queried

"Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests," Lily explained. "Basically A Levels for wizards."

"And we have Ordinary Wizarding Levels instead of O Levels." Hermione added

**Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.**

Hermione's blush darkened

**"I don't know, sir," said Harry.**

**Snape's lips curled into a sneer.**

Petunia's sharp ears distinctly heard James calling Snape's parent's marital status at the time of their son's conception into question

**"Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything."**

**He ignored Hermione's hand.**

**"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"**

"Potions cupboard," The Marauders chorused

The other former students laughed, Petunia smirked, even though she doubted that Snape would accept that answer

**Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.**

**"I don't know, sir."**

**"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?**

**Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.**

**"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"**

"The spelling," Lily quipped, drawing laughter from every reader, even Petunia who knew about wolfsbane from a botany course she'd taken before Dudley was born

**At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.**

**"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"**

The readers laughed.

"He's sharp," Alice noted. "That's you Lily,"

**A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.**

"When is he ever?" Frank wondered

**"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione.**

**"For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"**

"Er, because you didn't tell them to," Remus replied to Snape's rhetorical question

**There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."**

Sirius put his hands over Theo's ears. "Git,"

**Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like.**

"_Quelle Surprise,_" Frank chipped in

**He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.**

"Oh Neville," Alice sighed

Baby Neville had his thumb in his mouth, dead to the world

**"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"**

**Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.**

**"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.**

"Oh Merlin," Lily groaned

**"You — Potter — why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? **

"Because he was doing his own work you greasy little slime ball," Remus' voice dripped with acid

**Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."**

**This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.**

**"Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."**

"Nah," James shook his head, sarcastically. "He's a real fairy princess,"

**As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week**

Silence.

Not even the Marauders had crossed the line in their first week. But then they had had more reasonable teachers in their first year.

—**why did Snape hate him so much?**

"Sorry Harry, that'd be my fault." James put in.

"It's a book Prongs,"

"Shut up Padfoot,"

**"Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"**

**At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.**

**When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang —back."**

"Isn't that what he named the puppy we gave him last Christmas?" Remus enquired of his wife

Hermione just smiled

**Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.**

**"Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."**

**He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.**

"That'd be the one Remus," she nodded

**There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.**

**"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears.**

"I know his name's Fang," Lily said looking at her bemused older sister. "But with Hagrid the ones with the Dangerous names are the safest animals to be around."

Petunia blinked

**Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.**

**"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.**

"If you value your dental health don't eat those rock cakes," Sirius advised, remembering his first taste of the aptly named baked goods- if it weren't for Madame Pomphrey he'd still have gaps in his teeth

**"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. "I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."**

"And the other half chasing us away," James grinned

**The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons.**

**Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.**

"Pfffang!" said Theo

"That's right darling," Hazel smiled, kissing her son's chubby cheek. "_Fang_, clever boy,"

**Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch "that old git."**

"Well he is," James chimed in

**"An' as fer that cat, Mrs Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her — Filch puts her up to it."**

"She was the same with me," Hazel announced. "Flea bitten thing must know when people are allergic to her."

**Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.**

**"But he seemed to really hate me."**

**"Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?"**

"Because he bares a grudge better than anyone," James suggested.

**Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.**

**"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot — great with animals."**

"I like Charlie too," Hazel smiled. They had bonded over a love of  
most things with fur, feathers or four or _more_ legs when she'd babysat for Molly and Arthur

**Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose.**

"Hagrid's good at that," Remus shrugged

**While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:**

**GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST**

"Ooh I'd forgotten about that," Hermione mused. "There was uproar about it at the time."

"Understandable," Frank returned. "Gringotts branches are the safest places in the world."

**Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31****st**** July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.**

"Was it…?" Remus looked to his wife curiously

Hermione shrugged

**"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.**

**Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.**

**"Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!"**

**There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time.**

"There's your answer love," Hermione smiled at her husband

**He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day.**

**Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?**

"Undoubtedly," this from James

**As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse,**

"We all got past that eventually," Hermione laughed

"So did we," Sirius told her. "Didn't take long,"

**Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?**

"And that's that chapter," Alice stated. "James have you read yet?"

"Not yet no," James replied

"Well then I guess it's your turn," she held out the book to him.

James took it and turned the page. He looked at the title with a curious expression that looked as though he was trying not to grin.

"What's up Prongs?" Hazel asked

"Next chapter is called The Midnight Duel." He replied

Lily just groaned.

~V~


End file.
